To Face Your Demons
by sugarless5
Summary: Buffy shows up in LA at Wolfram & Hart tracking a demon that's gone after her slayers. She, Giles, and the W&H gang team up to take it down, but will it get to her first? Definitely B/A, but Spike friendly
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: The much awaited (by me anyway) story I've been working on! Many thanks (and a huge hug) go to Love-el-ly Joy, who has seriously been holding my hand through this whole process. Probably somewhat short chapters with some long ones thrown in there. One cannon tweak for the purposes of making a later scene work - everyone still remembers Connor. Also - I like Spike, so while this is B/A, it's very Spike friendly.  
**

**Don't own anything, no one's paying me. **

**Summary: Buffy Shows up in LA at Wolfram & Hart tracking down a demon that had gotten some of her slayers. She, Giles and the W&H gang work together to find it and take it down... if it doesn't get to her first. **

**Enjoy! And please review! I know this is just the setup, but it'll be nice to hear from you when we start diving in.**

Angel felt a familiar zip run through his spine. Buffy was here. He idly wondered how long it would take her to get through the extensive security measures to get to his office.

Shaking his head a little, he took a breath and tried to focus on the paperwork in front of him. Maybe he could get one page finished before she got there.

As soon as the thought entered his brain, a very annoyed sounding Harmony paged him.

"Boss, you have –"

"Just send her in," he cut in, a small smile playing around his lips.

Moments later, Harmony escorted Buffy into his office.

"Could you tell your 'guest' that breaking a security officer's hand and threatening the staff is _not_ the way you're supposed to get a meeting with the boss?" Harmony said before huffing out.

Buffy watched Harmony leave with a smile of her own tugging at her lips. "You know, her as your secretary will never _not_ be funny," she said.

Angel took in her presence, cataloguing every change in her. She looked less haggard than she did in the finals days of Sunnydale, but she was far from her more jubilant former self.

When she looked back at him, he simply raised his eyebrows. "The security guard?" he inquired.

Buffy shrugged. "He got a little too frisky while… frisking me"

"And the threats?"

"They got in my way! Turns out they don't like it when their fellow guard gets injured," she said innocently.

"Imagine that," he said dryly.

She grinned almost impishly at him and he couldn't help a small smile in return. He stepped forward and took her in his arms, delighted to feel her whole body melt into his.

They broke away after a moment. She looked up at him, that familiar connection zinging between them as their eyes met. Their gaze felt almost more intimate than the embrace they'd just shared.

"What are you-" he began, only to be interrupted as the gang rushed in.

"Angel!" Gunn began, throwing open the door. "We heard the sl…" He trailed off as he saw Buffy standing next to Angel.

The two quickly looked away from each other, clearing their throats as if caught in an intimate moment.

"…but I guess you knew that already," Gunn finished.

Spike snorted. "Told you. That's 20 quid you owe me," he said as Gunn grumbled. Spike stepped forward. "'S good to see you, pet."

Angel fought back a deep scowl as Buffy wrapped the blond vampire in a quick hug. It quickly became a grin, however, as Buffy pulled back and smacked Spike soundly on the arm,

"Ow!" Spike yelped. "What was that for?"

"I never gave you the dressing down you deserved for that 'Let's not tell Buffy I'm alive' stunt," she said.

"Well technically I'm still- Ow!" he broke off as she whacked him again, scowling at him. The gang snickered as he pouted.

Turning around, Buffy brightly greeted the rest of the gang, whom she had briefly met just after the battle of Sunnydale. She gave Fred a quick hug, Gunn a high five and Wes a mock-solemn nod.

Wes was alarmed by her presence. "Buffy, what is it? Do you need help?" he asked.

"Well obviously there's an apocalypse if she's seeking out captain forehead here," said Spike.

"Spike!" said Angel in a warning growl.

"No, it's nothing like that," said Buffy. "I just-"

"Are you okay?" Angel interrupted. "Are you in trouble?"

"Guys, isn't it possible she just came here to see you?" said Fred.

Both Angel and Spike spoke in unison. "No."

"Hey, here's an idea!" said Buffy dryly. "How about we let Buffy speak before we all freak out?"

"Sorry," they mumbled.

"So, Buffy," said Gunn mock-casually, "what brings you here?"

"Why thank you for asking!" said Buffy with a grin. "It's nothing quite so dire. I'm chasing a demon. It's been wreaking havoc back in Europe and my sources tell me it's here now." She looked at Angel. "I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I'm demon hunting on your turf."

Angel leaned forward. "What kind of demon?"

"Giles is doing the research. He just called and said he thinks he found it in some book or other. He was just getting on the plane when he called, so he should be here in about 9 hours. We'll hopefully have more info soon."

"I got a question," said Gunn. "Not that it's not great to see you, but why didn't you just call us when you figure it out and let us take care of it?"

Buffy's mouth settled into a grim line and a determined spark entered her eyes. It was clear to all that Buffy the Slayer was talking when she answered. "It killed 4 of my girls." She looked over at Spike. "It killed Kennedy." Spike's eyes widened. "I'm taking it down. Personally."

Angel nodded in understanding. "What do you know about it?" he asked.

Buffy sighed in frustration. "Not much. The few reports we do have completely contradict each other. We know that it attacks on two fronts. One is, obviously, physical. We can't get a read on what the other level of attack is." She started to pace. "On the surface, the physical front is how the girls…" She broke off and ran a hand over her face. "They were found beaten to death. But these were slayers – strong ones."

"You think it was the second front," Angel said.

"Yeah, the mysterious second half of the attacks is what has me worried. I'm pretty sure that's where the real danger is." She paused as an expression Angel was all too familiar with came across her face. "I'm pretty sure that's what really got to those girls," she said quietly.

Angel put his hand on her shoulder in silent support. "Wesley," he said, "do what you can with research until Giles gets here."

"Of course," said Wes.

"Where are you staying?" asked Fred.

There was a tense moment as Angel and Spike looked at each other. Gunn threw a look at both of them and Buffy smiled a little.

"Stand down," she said. "I have a friend in the area; I'm staying with her until Giles and the others arrive – and we'll figure all that out when they get here. I know you have your hands full with all of this," she made a vague arm gesture, seeming to mean all of Wolfram & Hart, "so I didn't want to come over and just assume I could commandeer your lodgings and staff."

"Buffy you're always welcome here, and we'll always help you out as much as we can," said Angel.

"Hell, slayer, I don't work for the ponce, so even if he didn't, I would," said Spike.

Buffy smiled at both of them. "Good!" she said. "Well now that that's all settled, I'll go drop my stuff off with my friend and then… anyone want to go on patrol with me? Mostly recon, though I wouldn't say no to some vamp dusting on the way."

Angel sighed. God, he missed patrolling with Buffy. "I can't," he said regretfully, "I need to get some stuff finished so I can devote my time to your demon once Giles arrives."

"No worries, I gotcha. How 'bout you, Gunn? I hear you were quite the street warrior. Wanna put the suit away and brush up on some butt kicking?"

Gunn grinned. "Count me in."

Buffy turned to the blond vampire. "Spike?"

"Count on it, pet," he said, smiling.

Angel scowled, but Buffy either didn't notice or completely ignored it.

"Alright. I'll meet you guys back here in an hour?"

"Maybe you could manage not to injure the security team when you come back?" said Wesley.

"Maybe," said Buffy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Well hi there kiddies! Sorry, I'd meant to get this up to you earlier - yesterday at the very latest, but first I got busy, then my computer died. Won't turn on and since I have an older hard drive, I don't have anything to use to get the files off it. Luckily, I'd been sending these chapters out to the wonderful and ever-so helpful and patient Love-el-ly Joy and they're still saved in my outbox. Unfortunately, that means this is the unedited version of this. If she found any mistakes that I missed, this version doesn't have them edited out. I'm pretty sure I added more description to this chapter, but this version doesn't have it. **

**So in the meantime, here's the rougher version of this while I work on recovering my files and getting one of my two computers to turn on. I know the other chapters are edited and more descriptive, so bear with me until we get to the next chapter. Meanwhile, enjoy!  
**

A little over an hour later, the trio headed out of Wolfram & Hart, ready to go.

"A stake?" asked Gunn, gripping his axe fondly. "You're trying to track down some unknown horrific demon and all you bring is a stake?"

"Hey, I'm a Slayer; a stake is my meat and potatoes! You'd be surprised wat I can do with a stake," she said.

There was a beat of silence as Spike and Gunn looked from the phallic stake to her with raised eyebrows.

"Eeeew! Not what I meant, you pervs! Anyway, it's less conspicuous than your battle axe."

"Hey, don't diss the axe! It's way too easy to lose or break a stake and then you're shit outta luck."

"You're assuming she only has the one," said Spike. "If I know the Slayer, she has at least five or six more on her."

Gunn eyed her petite frame. "Where?"

Spike smirked. "Like she said, you'd be surpri- OW! You're a violent woman, pet!"

"They're hidden," is all she said to Gunn. "And," she said to both of them, "this is recon only. Even if we find this thing, we can't engage it. We don't know enough about it or its power yet to try to fight it.."

Gunn was looking behind her as a growl emanated from an alley behind them. "Vamps we can fight though, right?" said Gunn, nodding toward a gang of vamps emerging from what was clearly a nest.

"Oh yes," Buffy confirmed with a grin. "Vamps we can fight."

They attacked the group with enthusiasm, particularly Gunn, who had spent the last few months fighting evil from behind a desk. After dusting two, he gripped his axe fondly and looked around for more before he was stopped by Spike.

"You ever see a slayer fight?" asked Spike.

"Can't say I have."

"Just watch for a moment."

Gunn looked over to see Buffy dodge a blow aimed at her face, grabbing her attacker's arm and throwing him aside, just in time to deliver a hard kick to the midsection of another vamp coming at her. She dodged one attack, only to be caught off guard as a vamp took out her knee, bringing her to the ground. She kicked her feet up, simultaneously kicking the vamp in the face and flinging herself back to her feet.

Gunn grinned at Spike, before gripping his axe and jumping back into the fray.

Buffy smiled as the last vamp exploded into dust. "Well," she said, dusting off her clothes, "that was bracing."

"No kidding," said Gunn, "Nice moves.

"Well, you know, I work out," she said.

"So Buffy," said Spike, "how exactly are we tracking this thing? What are we looking for?"

"It's tough to tell. Basically, if we see any fights, we should check them out. Any deaths we can't explain we should look into. Keep your eyes peeled for anything different or anything that doesn't add up. Sorry I can't be more specific."

"Your standard 'something's brewing' patrol, then," said Spike.

"Pretty much." They continued on in silence for a minute before Buffy cleared her throat. "Spike. I've been meaning to ask you. When you died…. I mean, when you were…" She sighed. "Do you remember anything? Where you were?"

Spike instantly recognized what she was asking. "Wasn't in hell," he hastened to assure her, leaving out the Pavayne incident. "And I definitely wasn't in heaven. It was more of a 'one minute you're here, the next you're there' kind of thing. Disorienting as hell, but that's all.

Buffy nodded, relieved. "And you decided not to tell me because…?"

"Well come on! I'd gone out in a bloody epic blaze of glory. Calling you up to say 'hey guess what – I'm alive!' would've been a bit anti-climactic!"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Right, because I've never died dramatically only to come back to life again."

"Got me there," said Spike.

"Man, I get that life gets weird when you start hunting demons, but you three have the _weirdest_ common experiences," said Gunn, shaking his head.

Spike and Buffy grinned. "Taking on gods from demon dimensions!" said Spike.

"Swords through the stomach," said Buffy.

"Me and Angel both having to be invited into your house _twice_ because you revoked the invitation."

"You and Angel both chaining me to a wall."

"Me and Angel both being chained to walls by you. For a lot longer than you were, for that matter."

"Okay, so we've all spent some time chained to a wall," Buffy conceded.

"Oh god, this is information I don't need," said Gunn.

"Being involved with someone who used to try to kill you!" said Buffy.

"Crawling out of your grave, of course. That one's a classic," said Spike.

"Ooh! For me and Angel – being single parents of mystical teenage kids!" said Buffy.

"Bonus points for the fact that both kids went from non-existent to teenager in less than a year," Spike put in.

Gunn just shook his head. "How did this become my life?"

Buffy grinned at him until he said "How old is your sister again? Maybe she and Connor should hook up."

"Eeeew! That's like incest!"

"Um, except for the fact that they aren't related," said Gunn.

"God, they would be the world's angstiest couple," said Spike.

"Dawn's gotten better about that."

"I hear Connor's not as bad anymore either," said Gunn.

"No."

"But just think of all they have in common!" Gunn was thoroughly enjoying himself at this point.

"Lalalalala not listening!" said Buffy, covering her ears.

"They're growing up, you know. They're well into dating age anyway."

"Do you _want_ to meet the business end of my fist?"

"She's actually older than Buffy was when she met Angel," Spike chimed in.

"Dawn should not look to any of my relationships as an example."

"Is she coming with Giles?" asked Spike.

"No, thank God."

"I miss the little bit," he said.

Buffy's eyes softened at him. "I think she misses you too. This is the first time in a long while she hasn't had an undead big brother type in her life."

"So they just… made up memories and planted them in everyone's head?" said Gunn.

"Yep," said Buffy.

"Everyone who would have had contact with her if she had actually existed then."

"Yep."

"I always thought it was odd Angelus never went after her," said Spike.

Buffy nodded. "He went after me, Willow, Giles, even messed with my mom a little. I remember being terrified, just waiting for him to do something to her, but he never did."

"Because she wasn't really there," said Gunn.

"The monks can change memories, but they can't change history. But she was there. I mean, not really, but she remembers it all."

Gunn shook his head. "Okay, this is starting to make my head hurt," he said, not noticing Spike go very still beside him. "New topic."

"How 'bout the dead girl over there?" Spike said quietly. **  
**

Buffy hurried over to the body, followed quickly by the other two. She crouched down, hoping to find a pulse, but not surprised when the girl was still and silent.

"Was it our demon?" asked Gunn.

"It's tough to tell, since it's not as distinctive as, say, a vampire bite. If I had to guess, I would say it was a Polgara demon."

Spike leaned in closer and sniffed experimentally. "Yeah, definitely a Polgara," he said.

Buffy made a face at the sniffing, then turned away from the girl.

"On the bright side," she said, her voice growing grim, a determined glint in her eyes, "that makes something else we can beat the crap out of tonight."

**

* * *

**

Several hours later, the trio made their way through Wolfram & Hart carrying bags of blood and takeout.

"We didn't need to take this back here, pet," Spike had been saying. "Angel's a big CEO now. He can get his own blood."

"It's not the blood I'm worried about and you know it. It's the brooding."

They threw open his office door to find Angel staring longingly out the window.

Buffy put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Did you actually get any work done, or have you just been staring out the window this whole time?"

Angel's eyes widened in surprise. "No, I just finished what I needed, honest!" he said, waving some papers around as proof.

"Good," she said, pulling out blood and setting it on his desk.

"Did you find anything?" asked Angel.

"Nothing on our mystery demon. Giles will be here soon, so hopefully we won't be clueless for long," she said, unpacking her food. "Managed to get some of your standard stake and slays though."

Angel's eyebrows rose as she laid out a feast in front of her. "And did you leave any food for the rest of LA?"

"Ha ha," said Buffy. "You know how slaying always makes me hungry and… uh… craving junk food."

Angel's lips twitched. "Craving junk food," he repeated.

Buffy's face flushed as she babbled. "Yeah, you know, pizza, Chinese, tacos, cheesy fries… It's like'yay killing bad things! Let's kill your cholesterol too!' It's a good thing I'm so active, otherwise…."

She trailed off, clamping her mouth shut to avoid more babbling.

Angel and Spike just smirked.

**Like I said, it's missing some parts I went back and added later, but this is all I have for you. Hopefully I can make it to a computer center this week to recover my files. The other few chapters I have finished should be relatively polished, it's just this one that isn't. Thanks for your patience. Let me know what you think!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey folks! Right now, I'm so glad I'd decided not to start posting chapters until I'd written several ahead. Computer's still down, though hopefully that'll change by Wednesday. In the meantime, here's what I have recovered of Chapter 3. Again, I'm not entirely sure this is the final edit. I *think* it is, but if there are still some mistakes, typos, parts that don't flow, etc, that might be why. As always, I'd like to thank the patient and talented Love-el-ly Joy for all of her help and fabulous ideas. Onward and upward! **

Fred opened Angel's office door to find Angel, Spike, Buffy and Gunn lounging amidst empty food cartons, swapping stories.

"…so of course, I have no idea what this thing's power is," Buffy was saying, her legs propped up on Angel's lap, "but most of the time it's the claws or the bite that's dangerous, so I figure as long as I don't get scratched or bitten, I'm solid, right?"

"You would think," said Gunn.

Angel smiled, his hands resting on her propped up legs. "Something tells me you would think wrong," he said.

Buffy grinned at him. "Of course, otherwise there wouldn't be a story," she said. "So at one point in this fight, I fell and cut myself on a rock or something. This thing walks right up to me and, as I'm sitting there, ready to defend myself, he goes and spits on the cut, which is not only totally gross, but totally uncalled for, I'm thinking."

Spike smiled. "And I'm sure you told him as much."

"Well come on! Just because we're enemies fighting to the death doesn't mean we have to resort to spitting! So as I'm yelling at this thing for being such a jerk, I realize it's getting bigger. Then I realize my voice is getting squeakier."

"Oh no," said Angel, realizing the implication, his eyes sparkling with mirth. Fred looked at Angel in surprise. As he looked at Buffy, he looked somehow… lighter than she had seen him in a long while.

"Oh yes," said Buffy, continuing her story with a twinkle in her eye. "By the time I stopped yelling and realized what was going on, I was about 6 inches tall."

"I don't get it; how is that any different than usual?" asked Gunn.

Buffy swatted at him. "Watch it, buddy!" She looked up to see Fred watching intently. "Hey, Fred!" She turned to Angel. "Does anyone on your team ever go home? Slave driver."

"Hey, I didn't make her stay," he said in his defense.

"Slave driver?" said Spike. "Hello pot, meet kettle."

"Hey, I resent that!" she said with a pout.

"Spike just doesn't know what it means to be responsible for anyone else."

Fred cleared her throat to cut through their bickering. "I just wanted to let you know that Giles's plane gets here in about 3 hours. We can have a driver come and pick him up – that would put him here in just over 3 ½ hours or so."

Moving her feet, Buffy stood up. "Alright, well I need to get over to Annie's. I need a shower and a change of clothes." She was cut off by a huge yawn. "And maybe, if I'm very lucky," she added, "a quick nap."

"Where is her place?" asked Angel.

"East 53rd St."

"Wait, Annie as in… Does she run a shelter?" asked Gunn.

"Yeah, she started it a few years back. Why, you know her?" said Buffy.

"Hell yeah I do! How do you know her?"

Buffy smiled, thinking back to her brief escape to LA years ago. "It's a really long story. We went through a thing."

"She never told me she knew you!"

"Well I imagine it never came up," she said, stifling another yawn.

"You want a ride over there?" asked Angel. "I can drive you."

"You know, usually I'd say I'm fine walking, but if you wouldn't mind, a lift would be great. That jet lag is a killer."

"Of course," said Angel.

Spike put his hand on her shoulder as she started to leave the room.

"It really is good to see you, pet."

She smiled at him, covering his hand with her own. "You too. I miss you. We all do."

"Of course you do, pet," he said with a quick smile. "Who wouldn't?"

"Do you want a list?" said Angel.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Alright, guys. Come on, Angel," she said, leaving the office with him.

The two made their way down to the garage slowly, reveling in each other's company.

"So how's life post Sunnydale? I know you never thought you'd be able to leave."

She smiled. "Yeah, hence my running to the other side of the world."

"How are you dealing with the blank spot on the map?"

She chewed on her lip for a moment before responding. "You know, sometimes I think to myself "Thank God that miserable place is gone," but sometimes I really miss it. Like there's a hole inside of me."

He nodded in understanding. "It makes sense. Some of your best and your worst memories are there."

"God, that's for sure. I get whiplash just thinking about life on the Hellmouth. The good times were so wonderful, but the bad…" She shook her head. "Enough! How's your work over here going?"

"A lot like your time in Sunnydale, actually," he said, pressing "down" on the elevator. "We can do a lot of good with these resources, but some of the evil we're forced to allow, or even support, makes you wonder if you're doing the right thing."

She gave his hand a squeeze in support and understanding.

"Don't tell Spike I said that. I've been playing the confident Champion every time he brings it up," he said.

Buffy chuckled. "Been there. Mum's the word."

"Besides," he said as the elevator doors opened. "there have been some perks to the job."

Her eyes widened as she took in the assortment of cars. "Holy sh-"

**

* * *

**

Fred hurried over to Lorne's office. She opened the door to find him just taking off his jacket and scarf.

"Lorne! Where have you been?" she asked.

"In a meeting with-"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter," she said, cutting him off. "Guess who's here."

Lorne groaned. "Depp isn't here, is he? I _told_ him the Doctor just isn't the right role for him! But-"

"Lorne!" she waited until she had his full attention. "Buffy's here."

"Buffy… wait, _Buffy_? Slayerkins is here?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"She's chasing some demons that got to some of her girls."

"How are the guys?"

"Oh Lorne, you should see them."

"Broody and testy?"

"No! I mean, you're the empath demon, but…"

"Where are they?" asked Lorne.

"She went back to her friend's place. She won't be back here for another few hours."

"Good, I need some rest before I jump in there. How about the big guy?"

"He went with her."

"Oh, this I can't wait to see."

**

* * *

**

Buffy and Angel pulled up to Anne's place in one of his less flashy cars, considering the neighborhood.

"Hey, thanks for this. I take it you've meet Anne before?"

"Yeah, she's never mentioned that she know you though."

"I don't think she knew who you were. Whenever I was in LA I would stop by to see her and… uh… we've randomly kept in contact over the last few years," she said, knocking on the door. "I don't think I had used your name before."

"What?"

"Well you were always just 'he' when you came up."

"Okay," he said since that didn't really explain much. The door opened before she could say any more.

"Buffy," the Anne said, opening the door "you didn't have to knock."

"I'm sorry. I know it's late."

Anne ignored the apology. "And Angel. It's nice to see you again. Come on in."

"Thank you," said Angel, stepping in with Buffy. "It's nice to see you too."

"I'm going to hop in the shower, if you guys don't mind. Anne, I'm sorry, I know you guys have curfew."

"We've already been through this. You warned me you'd be in and out at odd hours. And the curfew hardly applies to those who keep creatures of the night off the street."

Buffy gave her a quick grin. "Thanks. Angel, I'll be out in a minute."

"Take your time," he said, giving her hand a quick squeeze before letting go.

"Angel? Would you like some tea?" asked Anne once Buffy had made her way upstairs.

Since he heard the unspoken command in her voice, he replied with a simple "Sure."

"I've wanted to meet you for a long time," she said once they were in the kitchen, while she poured two mugs of tea.

Angel raised his eyebrows. "We've met before."

"True," she conceded, handing him his mug. "Let's say I've wanted to have a chat with you for a long time."

He took a sip of tea, indicating for her to continue. Instead, she studied him closely over the rim of her mug until he shifted uncomfortably.

"I wanted to talk to the man who could make the strongest, most capable woman I know run away from her calling, or show up on my doorstep close to tears twice in her first year of college."

Angel looked down as her words hit home.

"I wanted to understand the man who, despite everything, she still speaks of with reverence and respect."

Angel looked up at her, still not sure what to say.

"I won't pretend to understand the history between the two of you," she continued, "though I can now say I understand why she said you make silence a form of conversation."

Angel's lips quirked at that as he glanced up to where he could hear the water running.

"But I do understand that when Buffy chooses to trust or believe in someone, she is rarely wrong."

"How do you know her?" asked Angel.

"Ah, so he speaks!" she said, a twinkle in her eye. "Did you know that when she was 17, she ran away and ended up around here?"

"Yeah. I … wasn't around at the time, but I heard about it." His eyes widened. "You were with her in that demon dimension!"

Anne nodded. "I owe her a lot. Not just because she always makes it a point to help out around here, but because she gave me the strength to become who I am today."

Angel nodded. "I'm sure she would say you always had the strength, you just never realized it."

She smiled at him. "You're a good man."

"Well thank you."

"You and that other vampire-"

"Spike?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah, that's the one. I understand there's a weird history between them, too, but you're both good for her."

"_Spike?_"

"From what I've gathered, you both let her be weak. She may be extraordinary, but she's still only human."

"Uh oh," a voice broke through. "Are we having a serious talk?" asked Buffy, coming into the kitchen, her hair wet from her shower. "Do we need to break out the cookie dough?"

"Cookie dough?" he asked, unable to resist brushing a piece of damp hair off her shoulder.

"Yeah," she said, sliding herself up on the counter. "Whenever we have a serious talk, we do it while making cookies for the kids here. Should I start cracking eggs?"

"One of these talks didn't happen to be about developing as a person without a man, did it?"

Buffy blushed and pointedly changed the subject. "Is there anything you need done around here, Anne?"

Anne put her hands on her hips. "I need you to get some sleep. If you're going to go off fighting evil, you're not going to do it jet legged with no sleep!"

Buffy mock-saluted her. "Yes ma'am! But Angel-"

"I could use a nap, too," he cut in.

"Well fine, if you're going to gang up on me," Buffy grumbled, leading him up the stairs.

Opening the door, Buffy looked back at Angel. "Sorry the room is such a mess. I haven't gotten the chance to unpack yet. I'm not good at living out of a suitcase."

"It's not a problem. Here, hand me that bag, I'll help you unpack."

"You really don't have to-" she began.

"Buffy," he said with a small, patient smile, "give me the bag."

She passed it over to him with a smile of her own. They unpacked in silence for a moment before Angel spoke. "What were their names?"

Buffy didn't have to ask to know he was talking about the fallen slayers. "Michelle, Allison, Sarah and Kennedy."

Angel nodded, putting a shirt in a drawer. "How have you been coping with it?"

"Everyone's pretty shaken. No one wants to patrol, of course, which has made things difficult. I don't want to turn it into a 'you're the slayer you must patrol no matter what you're going through' situation for them, but at the same time-"

"Buffy," he interrupted. "That's not what I asked. How are _you_ coping?"

Buffy sighed and remained silent for a moment. "I tried to make it so that being called as a Slayer wasn't a death sentence," she said. "I tried to keep future slayers from making the choices I had to make, or dealing with the loss…" She sighed. "They wouldn't have died if we hadn't done that spell."

'No," said Angel, "but they may have when the First took over the world. You made it so that girls can walk away from their calling, knowing that there are others to pick up the fight. You gave them a choice. Slayers no longer have to bear the burden alone. That's an incredible gift."

"Tell that to those girls," she said quietly.

Angel looked down, knowing he had no reply to that. He spotted a small box and picked it up. Opening it, he found the cross he had given her one that first night in Sunnydale. Resting next to it lay Mr. Pointy.

"That's all I have left of Sunnydale. Everything else got swallowed up into the crater."

He was elated to see that she still kept the cross, but kept it to himself. Instead, he picked up the stake with a sort of reverence. "Mr. Pointy," he said.

"I think of her whenever I use it. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one who even remembers she existed. No friends, no family… Giles said he never heard from her Watcher.

He said nothing, letting a moment of silence for the fallen Slayer… the fallen girl, pass. Buffy sat on the bed, a preoccupied frown on her face as she rubbed her forehead.

He sat down next to her. "What is it?" he asked.

"I'm worried about Willow." Her muscles slowly started to relax as he stroked her back. "Not that she's going to go dark again or anything," she said, leaning into him, "but to lose someone again, so soon after Tara… It's not fair."

"No, it isn't," he said, still stroking her back.

"And I can't be there for her because I chased it over here, not even pausing to wonder if Will needed me there."

"Really," he said, doubtfully. "Not pausing at all."

"Well, not for very long."

He shook his head. "Buffy, you can't be all things to all people, all the time." He thought back to his conversation with Anne. "You may be an extraordinary person, but you're still just one person," he said, his hand lulling her to sleep. "And Buffy?"

Her head drifted into his shoulder as she responded with a drowsy "Yeah?"

"You're allowed to grieve, too."

She said nothing for a moment, until- "Angel?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," she said, drifting off to sleep against him.

He smiled down at her for a few minutes until he finally rested his cheek on top of her head and let sleep claim him.


	4. Chapter 4

**The good news is my computer's fixed! The bad news is that my posted chapters vs already written chapters gap is shrinking. Ah well, what's a little writer's block?To all the people who reviewd the last chapter - thank so much! There were a lot of people I'd meant to reply to, but my smartphone wouldn't let me and by the time my computer was back up and running, I forgot what I was going to say, so I'll settle for a simple thank you. Thank you for reading, thank you for having the patience to read a work that's still in progress (because god knows I don't) and thank you for taking the time to let me know what you think.  
**

**And a very sincere and special thank you, as always, goes straight to Love-el-ly Joy, who's given me some great advice with the chapter I'm currently struggling with. I just have to implement it! That's it, so on with the show!  
**

Something was ringing. Loudly. Buffy snuggled in a little more, hoping the noise would just go away. When it didn't, she blindly groped for a pillow to throw over her head.

She found a hand.

Mentally shrugging, she put the hand over her ear and held it there to muffle the sound. Then she heard a deep rumble from underneath her other ear and, a second later, her head jostled as her pillow started to chuckle.

"Buffy," her pillow said.

She pried her eyes open to find Angel smiling down at her, clearly amused. "Giles is calling," he said.

Buffy closed her eyes again. "Tell Giles 5 more minutes."

"Buffy, we've been asleep for 3 hours. Giles is probably here by now."

"Good for him," she mumbled.

"Buffy," he said sternly.

"Angel," she said sleepily.

Sighing, Angel removed his hand and put her now-silent phone on top of her ear. Buffy jumped about a foot as it started ringing again a minute later. She snatched the phone up from where it had fallen and murmured a dazed "'M up!" into the mouthpiece. She glared at Angel as he started to laugh.

"You're evil," she said to him. Giles clearly said something in response, because she said "No, Angel" into the phone.

Buffy rolled her eyes as Giles's panicked voice came across. "No, not actually evil… No, he… That's not… Giles! He still has his soul. I was being dramatic…Yes, I know I shouldn't joke about things like that." She sighed. "I'll be over in a few minutes."

She hung up the phone and ran her hand through her still-damp hair. "Sorry about your shirt," she said with a slight smirk, pointing to the damp spot on his shoulder.

"Worth it," he said with a half-smile. "You about ready to go?"

Nodding as she twisted her hair up, Buffy grabbed her bag. "I think the sun's starting to rise."

Angel nodded. "It is. We can make it to the car though."

She handed him a blanket. "Just in case," she said.

He grimaced. "Let's go."

**

* * *

**

Most of the group was already in Angel's office when Buffy and Angel walked in. Giles and Wesley sat with their heads bent over a table, clearly discussing a passage in some text. Spike was the first to see them.

"Nice of you to join us, Peaches."

"Nice to see you've made yourself at home in my office."

Spike smirked and deliberately propped his feet on top of his table. "Well if you're going to be off gallivanting-"

"I wasn't gallivanting!" Angel said, swatting Spike's propped up feet off the table.

Giles had taken his glasses off, rubbing his eyes wearily in response to them. Buffy turned to Gunn. "They're always like this, aren't they?"

"Yep."

Buffy shook her head and went over to give Giles a hug. "Flight was okay?" she asked, looking up at him.

Giles looked down at her with faint amusement. "9 hours confined to a very small space with Andrew. Now I know why you wanted to go ahead of us."

Buffy chuckled. "Where is he?"

"He decided he _'must visit the bagno'_ and left to find it… about 10 minutes ago."

"Probably got distracted by something shiny on the way," said Spike. "He'll be back."

"Why did you bring him?" asked Gunn curiously.

Giles smiled faintly. "Despite his… er… utter ridiculousness as a person, he can actually be quite good at his job."

"Except when he finds meaning in his instructions where none is intended," she said, throwing an apologetic glance at Angel and Spike, who both nodded in understanding. "Right, Giles?" she asked, turning back to him, steel in her voice.

Angel and Spike shared a grin at her tone.

"Ah… yes, yes of course," he said, focusing intently on cleaning his glasses.

"You haven't started without me, have you Angelcakes?" Lorne said, rushing in.

Giles put on his glasses. "Dear Lord, you're green," he said, as Buffy mouthed a silent "Angelcakes?"

Spike smirked and Angel lightly cuffed him upside the head.

"Oi!" said Spike, his hand coming up to his head.

"Oh please. I didn't hit you that hard."

"You didn't have to hit me at all!"

"Baby."

"Poof!"

Buffy held in a giggle as both big, scary vampires looked about ready to stick their tongues out at each other.

Lorne ignored both of them. "And you must be slayerkins!"

"Also known as Buffy," she said, amused.

"I was crushed that I didn't get to meet you last time," he said, holding her at arms length. "Well I can see what all the hype was about!"

"Hype?" she said, raising her eyebrows.

Angel cleared his throat. "Okay, we're all here for a reason. Did you guys find anything about our demon?" he asked Giles and Wesley.

Wesley stood up. "Well there's not a lot of information, and what we do have is very difficult to translate. We're dealing with a Dankaar demon."

"Ah, yes! A Dankaar demon!" Andrew said, dramatically from the doorway before walking in.

Angel frowned. "I've never heard of it."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Neither has Andrew." She turned to Andrew. "Did you stand outside the door waiting for an opening for a dramatic entrance?"

Andrew shifted uncomfortably. "um…no..." He turned to Angel. "Hey, did you know that you guys have a room that looks exactly like the room in Return of the Jedi where Admiral Ackbar is-"

"That is the room," Lorne interrupted.

Andrew's eyes widened and, Angel found himself hoping that he had actually gotten to the bathroom before he got sidetracked, because he looked about ready to pee himself with excitement.

"_That's_ where they filmed the scene?" Andrew asked, barely able to choke the words out over his glee.

"Yeah," said Lorne, " and Admiral Ackbar wasn't actually a costume. He was a demon called a-"

"Hey, guys, this is all great, but can we focus here?" Angel interrupted.

Andrew practically vibrated with excitement, but managed to keep him mouth shut.

"So what do you know about this Dankaar demon?" asked Gunn.

"Well we can't be sure of what we have so far. Like Wesley said, the translation is rough at best. We're unclear about a possessive pronoun, and the sentence structure makes the meaning unclear…"

"Okay, take it with a grain of salt, I get it," said Buffy impatiently.

"Well it appears you were right; it does attack on two fronts. And right again – one of the two appears to be mental… somehow," said Giles. "The creature can also change its form depending on who it's attacking." Giles took off his glasses in frustration. "Andrew, stop trying to pass notes to Lorne."

"But that's where the translation gets unreliable," Wes continued as if there had been no interruption. "If we understand correctly, you must face it and…" he looked at Giles, who shrugged, "_it's_ demons… in the mind? It's possible that it sends its monsters into your mind, so that you must mentally battle them and physically battle the demon itself simultaneously."

"What do you mean 'mentally battle'?' asked Fred. "Are you talking about a battle of the wits or more of a mental distraction…?"

"We don't know," said Giles, clearly frustrated. "We don't even know if we've understood what we have correctly."

"Okay, but it's safe to assume it's a creature with intelligence .A purpose. Not your average killcrushdestroy demon?" said Buffy.

"I think that's a safe assumption," said Wes.

"Okay," she said. "Keep working on the translation. Whatever you can give me. Andrew, you too."

"We will get to the bottom of this!" said Andrew, overdramatically.

"Fred, you and Lorne try and figure out what this thing's purpose is," said Angel.

Buffy looked around. "I guess that leaves the rest of us to look into weird deaths until we have more to go on."

"Harmony!" Angel called.

"Yeah boss?" Harmony's squeaky voice came from the doorway.

"I need newspaper articles about recent deaths and obituaries."

"So… we're looking for someone who was killed by something – it could look like anyone or anything, and, what, looked distracted while doing it?" said Gunn.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," Spike muttered.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! I'll be honest; I really like this chapter. Usually I'm more hesitant to say that, but there you have it. On a not-so-good note, I'm only one chapter ahead of your now, but the other side of that coin is not to long. Love-el-ly Joy, I think I've finally gotten the ball rolling on the part I was stuck on, so I'm sure you'll have the actually completed Ch 6 in your inbox by the end of the day! Hopefully the delay won't translate itself to my once a week posting schedule. **

**As always, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, and please, let me know what you think of this one too. This is definitely more of a Spike and Buffy chapter**, **but it has its Bangel goodness too. Enjoy!**

Fred and Lorne were throwing out hypotheses on their way to meet an informant.

"It seems to be targeting slayers, so apocalypse doesn't seem likely. If that were the case, it would pick easier, lower profile kills," said Fred.

"Yeah, but if it's targeting slayers, why would it come all the way out here? Aren't most of them overseas?" said Lorne.

Fred frowned in confusion. "Are we sure it's targeting slayers? Maybe it's just killing randomly, and since there are a lot of slayers in Rome, he managed to get four of them."

"Yeah, but have you heard of any attacks since then? Any other kills? If it has killed since then, it's managed to keep it quiet. So why would we know about the Slayers, but no one else?"

"Maybe the only reason they were noticed was because they were slayers," Fred countered. "Buffy and the others know what to look for when a death seems odder than most.

The parked and got out of the car, still tossing around ideas until they walked into the demon bar.

"Who are we meeting?" asked Fred.

"I'm not sure what his name is, but Urghal, a friend of mine, referred him to me. Apparently he's real twitchy about this though, so tread carefully."

"How are we going to find him if we don't know who he is?"

"He will apparently be wearing white and holding a plumeria."

"You're kidding, right?" said Fred.

Lorne just pointed to a demon matching that description on the far side of the bar.

They made contact and slipped out to the back of the bar, where Fred finally got a good look at the demon. It was a grayish color, with bright blue eyes and a full head of hair seemingly at odds with its gaunt appearance. Its nose reminded her a little of gonzo.

"What's your name?" Fred asked.

"Steve," it replied.

Fred raised her eyebrows. "Steve?'

"Yeah? What, we all gotta have weird mystical sounding names? "

Fred opened and closed her mouth a few times before finally replying "No, of course not, I just…"

"Yeah, you just."

"Alright," said Lorne, cutting in. "Do you know something about this Dankaar demon?"

"Shhh! Jesus!" Steve looked around, nervously. "Not so loud!"

"You think he can hear us?" said Fred.

"I think this guy has managed to off four slayers, seriously piss off the Slayer-in-charge, and is actually going out of his way to fight her 'cause he knows he's going to win. Does that sound like a guy you want to mess with?"

"Why is he going to win?"

Steve just shrugged, then looked around, muttering. "I really shouldn't be here."

"Why are you?" asked Lorne, looking intently at him.

"It killed a good buddy of mine. Human, but willing to employ a demon." He shifted nervously. "Getting myself killed ain't gonna bring him back though, so we gonna hurry this up?"

"You said he's going out of his way to fight her. So he didn't run over here; he lured her over here?" said Lorne

Steve looked at him as if he were stupid. "Why do you think he went to the trouble to kill 4 Slayers?"

Realization dawned on Freed. "To get her attention."

"Bingo."

"Okay, so what exactly does he want?" asked Lorne.

"The Slayer."

"The Slayer? There are hundreds now," said Fred.

Steve looked at her incredulously. "Are you kidding me? Are the white hats really this clueless? Maybe I'm throwing my cap into the wrong ring," he said, making as if to move.

"Hold it right there, bucko," said Lorne.

"Bucko?" said Steve.

"Just tell us what we need to know," said Lorne, trying to look intimidating in his bright yellow and red outfit complete with a floral print ascot.

Steve rolled his eyes. "As far as the demon community is concerned, there is only one Slayer. She's the trophy."

"He's trying to kill Buffy?" said Fred.

"Give the girl a prize!"

Lorne frowned. "All of the other slayers have the same abilities as Buffy-"

"Yeah, and I have the _ability_ to write a press release. I still can't get a job in PR without any _experience_. Your girl's stopped a lot of big evil plans and killed a lot of unkillable demons. She's the real threat. Hell, she's stepped on a lotta big, evil toes, so maybe it's a payback thing, Or," he said with a significant look at them, "maybe he thinks that if you take out the general, the troops will follow. Who knows, I just know he's trying to kill your Slayer."

Fred was processing his words. "Leave the new slayers to be picked off once she's gone," she said.

Steve shrugged. "Whatever _abilities_ they might have, this guy's already proved to the whole demon community that the newbies are a whole lot easier to kill than the veteran."

They all jumped as they heard a loud crash. "What was that?" asked Steve, alarmed.

Fred shrugged. "A mouse? A cat? There are all kinds of strays in these alleys."

"Yeah. Listen, it's been real, but this is it. I can't talk to you guys no more. Best of luck, really. I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya, but that's it. I'm out. I've done my part."

"Wait! One more question!" said Fred.

Steve was already edging away. "What?"

"Why did he come to LA to take her out?"

"He met someone here. Don't know who. Didn't sound like the person was going to fight her though."

"Who?"

"Don't know!" he said, glancing around nervously. "I'm gettin' outta here. Wait here a while before you leave."

"Why?" asked Fred.

"Why? You don't exactly blend in! And your friend here looks like a giant fruit basket."

With that, he was gone, leaving Lorne frowning after him.

"Was he telling the truth?" asked Fred.

"I think so, sugarplum. The nervousness was certainly genuine. So was the grief about his friend."

"And we have to tell Buffy that this thing is out to take her down." Fred sighed. "How do you think she's going to take it?"

"I don't know," said Lorne.

**

* * *

**

Buffy's head thudded down onto the table currently littered with newspaper articles and other papers.

"Stick a fork in me, I'm done," she groaned.

"I can't believe all these deaths have been in just the past week," said Angel.

Buffy just groaned tragically again, making Angel smile. "Maybe we should check and see if Giles and Wesley have gotten any further," he said.

"No! No more research. No more words. No can do. I'm done with reading. I think they have the right idea," she said, jerking her thumb over at Spike and Gunn, both fast asleep on top of their papers. "Also, I think my butt's glued to my seat, I've been sitting in it for so long,"

Angel smirked at the sight of her squirming petulantly. "I'm amazed you lasted this long with research."

"Me too. My quota's up. I've gone over my limit."

"Maybe we should try for just a little longer…" Angel began, more to tease her than anything else.

"Oh no, what's this? I think I've gone blind!"

"Blind?"

"Yep, can't see anymore. Definitely can't read. It's tragic."

Angel shook his head. "That _is_ tragic," he said. "I was going to show you my big, state of the art training room."

Buffy visibly perked up.

"But if you can't see it," he continued, "there's no point in showing it to you. What a shame."

"Wow… vision's slowly returning… I can see again! It's a miracle!"

Angel grinned and Buffy felt a sense of accomplishment for being the one to put it there.

"What do you say?" he asked. "Ready for some sparring?"

Buffy's butt was apparently not glued down. It flew out of the chair as if it were on fire. "I thought you'd never ask!"

**

* * *

**

Fred and Lorne walked into the offices to find a small crowd gathered around the doorway to the training room. They exchanged a puzzled glace before hurrying over to see what was going on.

They stopped short upon seeing Buffy and Angel sparring. Joining the mesmerized crowd, they didn't notice when a tousled Spike and Gunn started to approach until Gunn spoke.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"Sugarpie, you have to come and see this," said Lorne.

Gunn grinned. "I've already seen her fight. Why, is she kicking Angel's ass?" he said, coming closer.

Spike smirked. "You've seen her fight, mate, but you've never really seen her _dance_."

The two partners attacked, countered, blocked and moved in a graceful give-and-take that could easily be described as a dance. The group took in the pair as they circled each other, testing, attacking, and checking for weaknesses and openings, seemingly unaware of their audience.

It escaped no one's attention just how _happy_ the two looked. Beyond their focus on the attacks and counters and despite each partner being thrown to the ground, or even across the room regularly, they both had a playful curve to their lips and a lighthearted twinkle in their eyes.

No one knew how long the battle continued. Sweat poured down from the sparring partners, but never slowed their movements. Money exchanged hands through the gathered crowd as bets were placed about the outcome. Finally, Buffy flipped through the air, dodging a blow, somersaulting onto the ground and picking up a blunted stake on the way. She kicked out the back of his knees and rolled with him until he was on his back, perfectly placed to put the blunt stake up to his heart.

"Gotcha!"

They stilled, sprawled on top of each other, both panting heavily, until the applause from their audience broke the moment. Sheepishly, she climbed off him before giving him a hand up.

"Your fighting's really improved," he said. "You've got some new moves."

"I could say the same for you!" she said. "When you get a chance, could you show me that one where you-"

"Slayerkins, that was incredible!" Lorne said, rushing at them.

Flushed and happy, they looked at each other. "It was fun," she said.

"Fun? I know some choreographers that would _kill_ to have seen that. And I mean that literally."

"The way they moved together…" said Fred.

"It's their substitute for sex, since that's not an option," said Spike, loud enough for them to hear as he collected his winnings from the dispersing crowd.

Both high off endorphins, Angel just rolled his eyes while Buffy shrugged and said "Less complicated than any sex I've ever had, too!"

Spike smirked and opened his mouth before Angel cut him off with a warning "Spike!"

"I didn't say anything!"

"Yeah, but you were going to."

Spike just smirked again and waved his winnings in the air. "Thanks, pet," he said to Buffy.

She grinned at him. "Anytime."

Her phone rang, and she checked the display before picking up. "Hey, Xand. What's up?"

Xander: "Hey Buff, just checking in to see how everything's going over there. Giles get there okay?"

Some of her glow disappeared as she was reminded of her purpose for being there. "Yeah, he got in several hours ago. He's probably asleep now though," she said into the phone.

Xander: "Good deal. Everything alright over there? You sound out of breath."

"Yeah, I was just sparring with Angel," she said.

Xander's voice chilled noticeably. "Well I'm glad you're out there having fun with your exes. Are you going to fit in slaying this thing at any point, or did you just run out there to play?"

It was as if a massive weight had settled back onto her shoulders. She straightened her spine in response. Her lingering smile dropped into the set lines of the Slayer. "Xander that's not fair. You know I'm tracking this thing down," she said quietly. Angel and Spike looked at each other.

She heard Xander heave a big sigh over the phone. "I know. I'm sorry. Sorry. Old baggage, I know, plus the … the new," he said.

Buffy nodded even though Xander couldn't see her.

"Double funeral today," he said.

Buffy rubbed her forehead as her shoulders drooped. "Whose?"

"Allison's was this morning."

The words hit Buffy like a blow to the chest. She knew they were all dead; she was as used to and familiar with death as one could get, but Allison was so full of life. She was one of the older ones, but she had adapted to being a slayer remarkably well. Her offbeat sense of humor always made Buffy think of the Scoobies back when they were in high school.

"Oh," she said quietly, leaning her back against the wall for support.

"Kennedy's was this afternoon."

That made no sense to her until she remembered the time difference. Her heart ached that she couldn't even make it to the Sunnydale veteran's funeral. "Willow?" she asked.

"She's…. she's taking it hard. I mean, of course she's taking it hard, but she'll get through it. We'll get through it."

"Tell her I'll be back there as soon as I can. Give her my love,"

"I will," said Xander. "Allison's parents are here. I… I had to talk to them. They want to speak with you, so they're staying in the area until you come back."

Parents. Families. Loved ones. Buffy started to slide down the wall until her butt hit the ground. "Right," was all she could manage.

Spike and Angel both started towards her at the same time, both moving with the same purpose. Spike got there first. He took the phone from her and passed it to Angel, who wordlessly took it.

"Xander," Angel said into the phone. "… Right… right, well I can give you a progress report just as easily…" he said, walking out of the room with the phone.

Spike sat on the floor next to Buffy. Feeling intrusive, Fred, Gunn and Lorne quietly left the room to go find the Watchers.

"I'm not there," she said to Spike.

"Nope. Last I checked you were here," he said.

"I left them. I abandoned them to chase after it."

"That's one way to look at it," said Spike. "The other being that this thing has to be stopped. Not to mention the fact that killing it gives everyone closure and gives you an outlet for your grief."

"An outlet for my grief?"

"I know. I've been hanging around Fred and Lorne too much," he said, eliciting a small, watery chuckle from Buffy.

"They don't understand because you grieve differently," he said.

"You think I'm cold."

Spike shook his head vehemently. "No. That's not even remotely what I said. I think you're the warmest, most passionate woman I know, but who didn't always get to show it. At least, not in the usual way. I had hoped things would change over there."

"They have," said Buffy. "I mean, not everything, but I made an effort to connect with the girls. To get to know them."

The implication that the connection only made it so much more painful for her sat heavy and unsaid in the air between them until Spike spoke.

"You didn't connect with them the way you connected with me, did you?" he asked with a teasing glint in his eye.

Buffy rolled her eyes, but a small smile played around her lips. "No."

"Just asking." He waited a beat. "If you do, can there be pictures?"

Buffy swatted at him, but couldn't stop the laugh from escaping. She laid her head on his shoulder. Spike tried not to savor the moment too much.

Angel walked in a moment later, taking in the sight of Buffy and Spike sitting next to each other, her head on his shoulder, chuckling as they traded quips. He frowned for a moment, then shook it off. He cleared his throat and both looked at him.

"Hey, we're meeting in my office. Fred and Lorne found out some information and Giles and Wesley have gotten a little farther on the translation."

"Good." She took a deep breath. "Good, I need to get this thing," she said with a glance at Spike, who just nodded.


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter was really hard for me to write (as Love-el-ly Joy can attest). But I do think it was a necessary chapter to write. (and she agrees! So there!) ****And now I *really* have to get to writing the next chapter because I'm super behind. Wish me luck and a swift kick in the pants from a muse! And I hope you enjoy. And... erm... please don't kill me when you get to the end :-p  
**

Giles looked up as the trio walked into the office.

"Buffy," he said in greeting. "How did the sparring match go?"

Buffy smiled at him. "Fantastic. I might have some new training moves for the girls by the time we go back," she said with a glance at Angel. She looked back to Giles and Wesley. "What about you guys? You got anything new for me?"

"Very little," said Giles, stepping around Andrew, whose head rested on the top of the desk, pillowed on his arms, snoring lightly. A touch of drool escaped his wide open mouth and onto his hand. Buffy chuckled at the sight while Giles continued. "We contacted Dawn for some translations help; she has a book that helped a little, but only a few words. It seems as though, while the physical being, the one you would be in the physical fight with, can shape shift, it can only do so for short periods of time during a fight. Five minutes or so. We believe it is largely for effect."

"Okay," she said, pacing, "does it get weaker when it shifts?"

Wesley shook his head. "No, it's not a weakness you can exploit during a fight."

"What about the mental part?" asked Gunn. "Isn't that the part we're most concerned about?"

Wesley shook his head in frustration. "We've translated one word, and that's only served to mix the pieces up even more, not make the picture clearer. It looks like, rather than having its demons invade your mind, the mind is... brought out to fight them. It makes very little sense."

Buffy nodded. "Okay. I guess I don't have to tell you to keep trying to focus on that section. I'm pretty sure it's key."

Giles blew out a frustrated breath. "No, you don't, but short of blankly staring at it for hours on end, I…" he trailed off as Buffy laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry; I know you're working on it. You'll get it," she said. Giles rested his hand over hers briefly.

Andrew let out a loud snort in his sleep, breaking the moment. Fred rapped him on the head, waking him up with a start.

"It's a trap!" he said aloud, before sheepishly looking around him and noting his surroundings.

"Right." Angel turned to Fred and Lorne.

"What about you guys?" he asked. "You said you have information for us."

"That we do, Angelcakes, and it's not good news," said Lorne.

"There's a surprise," said Spike dryly.

Lorne ignored him, "First off, it looks like our demon came here to team up with someone. We have absolutely no info on who or why. All we know is it's not a fighter, so you probably won't need to worry about him when you guys fight the Dankaar."

"Okay," said Angel, "that's good, but we're still going to want whatever information we can get on him."

"That's going to be pretty tough, sugarpie. We'll work on it, but I don't know what I can promise you."

"Did you find out this thing's purpose?" asked Buffy.

Lorne shifted uncomfortably but nodded.

"And?"

"Well… it's you, slayerkins."

"Huh?" said Buffy.

Fred took over from where Lorne left off. "It's apparently after you. It…" She swallowed. "It killed the others to attract your attention."

Buffy closed her eyes briefly in pain, but Fred kept talking.

"It wants to take you out, figuring once you're gone the rest of the slayers will be…"

"Easy pickings," Spike finished for her, grimly drawing the conclusion.

Buffy blinked for a moment. "Well that makes things easier."

"Makes things easier?" said Gunn.

"Sure, I don't have to find this thing; he's already planning on coming after me. I just have to try and make sure it's not on his terms," she said.

"Buffy," said Giles sharply. "You must take this seriously."

"I'm completely serious," she said. "I need to find out about this thing before it gets to me, and I need to make sure the fight is on my terms, not his. Other than that, I'm not going to have to work too hard to find him since he wants to be found, and I don't have to worry about stopping any nefarious plan _while_ killing him. I just have to worry about not dying. All in all, I'd say we're in a better spot than I had feared."

Fred frowned. "I thought you'd be more upset than this."

"She should be," Angel bit out.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Listen, I _am_ taking this seriously, but the news isn't terrible. I've always have demons looking to take me down-"

"Yes, but they always have a plan besides you to focus on," Giles cut her off, his voice rising. "This time the plan _is_ you. You're the focus. That's new."

Buffy stared at him in openmouthed shock. "New?" she said incredulously. "Do you want a list of demons whose only goal was to kill me?" She started ticking them off on her fingers. "Spike, the Order of Taraka, Angelus before Acathala came into the picture."

Spike and Angel both looked down. Angel absent-mindedly played with the cup of pens on his desk. Spike got as close to brooding as he'd ever gotten, staring intently at his hands.

Buffy continued her tirade. "…and of course we can't forget Slayerfest 1999."

"Slayerfest?" asked Gunn.

"A _sporting event_," Angel said, gripping the pen holder in remembered anger, bending the metal in the process, "where demons were gathered from around the world to _hunt_ Buffy and-"

But Buffy was still going. "I don't know if Maggie Walsh and Faith count during my freshman year, but they should. Then, of course, there was Dracula-"

"Wait, Dracula?" said Gunn.

"Okay, I understand," said Giles. "It's not the first time you've been hunted."

"Are you sure?" said Buffy. "'Cause I still haven't gotten to Andrew and the evil geek trio."

Andrew was busy biting his nails and looking out the window. He shifted uncomfortably when he realized that everyone was looking at him. "What? Oh! Yeah, I was once a criminal mastermind but I saw the error of my ways. I'm like Luke Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi…"

Giles spoke over him. ":Yes, I'm sure," he said to Buffy.

"… I let my fear and anger lead me towards the dark side, but once I realized the path I was on, I was able to turn back towards the light.." Andrew trailed off, realizing no one was listening.

Ignoring Andrew, Buffy softened towards Giles. "Look, I'm being careful. I'll train harder; I'll learn as much about it as I can, I'll stay on alert."

"That's all I can ask," said Giles. "And we'll work on getting the rest of this translated… somehow."

Buffy smiled at him. "No, you'll get some rest so that big brain of yours is actually functioning. I've had my time to crash, now it's yours."

Taking this as their cue to go about their business, everyone started to filter out while Buffy remained in the room to talk to Giles and Wesley for a moment.

Andrew dogged Spike and Angel's steps as they left the room.

"So, are you guys going to like, plan and plot and stuff?" said Andrew.

Angel shot him an unfathomable look.

"That's cool," said Andrew. "Hey, we should start a club!"

"A club," Angel repeated as Spike just smiled faintly in amusement.

"Yeah, a 'we used to be evil geniuses bent on destroying Buffy but now we're heroes fighting for good' club."

Angel stared.

"Of course, we'd need a catchier name," he continued.

Spike couldn't help the slight chuckle he let out in a whoosh of breath. Andrew just looked between the two silent vampires. Angel's shoulders were tense, his face disbelieving. Spike's features just held a familiar amusement. Upon realizing that neither of the two was particularly enthusiastic, or even communicative, he just shrugged and walked off.

Angel continued to stare after the boy's retreating form before shaking his head in disbelief. "Does he always do that?"

"What? Go on tangents? Exaggerate his evil-ness? Voice your most horrifying thoughts, fears or moments like it's nothing and then just go off as if nothing happened?" said Spike

Angel smiled slightly. "That one."

Spike smirked. "Only to people who think brooding is the most fun a bloke can handle"

Angel rolled his eyes. "Oh, so people who don't bother to stop and think about anything are safe."

"Certainly safer than people who are so happy being miserable that they give up anything that really matters to them."

Angel tensed up even more at those words. "It was best for both of us," he said between gritted teeth, too incensed to note the identical pain in the other vampire's eyes at the previous reminder of his pre-soul days.

"It was certainly best for me, mate." Spike smirked as Angel took a furious step towards him.

"I had to think of the consequences," Angel said in a low voice.

"You mean you had to do the thinking for the little lady, right?" Spike said. "Because I would have listened to her if she said 'Hang the consequences, we'll figure something out.'"

"You would say that. I'm _still_ suffering for what I did when Angelus was unleashed!" Angel said furiously.

"Don't act like you're the only demon with a soul around here!" said Spike.

"Ah yes, the soul you got to impress your little crush? Funny how this soul of yours doesn't seem to have changed anything about you!" Angel yelled back.

"Enough!" said Buffy sharply. Both vampires looked up in shock. Neither had noticed her enter the hallway. She walked over and jerked open the nearest door. "Angel," she said in clipped tones. "Inside. Spike, find Lorne, help him find our mystery guy."

Spike mock saluted her with a smirk and left as Angel walked into the empty office she had indicated.

Buffy all but slammed the door behind them, then turned to Angel, her fists on her hips and feet planted. "What the _hell_ was that?" she said.

Angel sighed. "Buffy, we always fight. We always will-"

"No, you guys always bicker. That's fine. Hell, I think it's _good_ for you. But there is a line."

Angel wasn't quite sure what to say to that, so he remained silent. Buffy rolled her eyes in response to his silence and folded her arms across her chest.

She stared him down for a moment before she spoke. "I love you. I always have and I always will. You've always been the one, and you better wipe that smirk off your face because I'm not done yet." She waited while he struggled to contain his smile.

"I love you," she continued. "You know it, I know it, Spike knows it. Hell, everyone knows it, okay? But I swear to God and any Powers that Be, I will _not _just stand by while you treat Spike like he's somehow _less _than you, and I will _not_ let you cheapen what Spike and I shared. You won. Let it go."

"And what did you guys share?" he asked before he could stop himself.

She sent him a dark look. "Do we really want to have that conversation? Me, Riley and Spike versus you, Darla and Cordelia?"

Angel blew out a breath, half sitting on a desk. "No. We really don't."

"So let me ask again what you're trying to pull with this … this condescending bullsh-"

"What do you expect? We've always been like this; it's not going to change."

"That's fine," she said, starting to pace, "but there's a line between simple bickering and what you're doing."

"And what am I doing?"

"Being an ass!" she said.

"Oh, well thanks; that clears it up. Why am I the bad guy in all this? He started it!"

"Then let him! My God, Angel, how old are you? You won! Just let it-"

"He's just as harsh as I am! What, just because I fight back, instead of-?"

She stepped closer to him. "Bickering is one thing, but when you make Spike feel inferior, when you write off everything he's done for our cause," she looked him straight in the eye, "when you try to tell him that there wasn't a point in time where he was one of the most important people in my life, then you cross a line."

"One of the most important?" Angel asked, again before he could stop himself.

"Don't start. I know for a fact you were in the same situation over here."

She had a point. Angel shook his head. "Buffy, Spike can handle himself."

"Just… watch which buttons you press."

"Why is this so important to you?" he asked.

"He's a good man. He's done a lot of good. He shouldn't be made to feel otherwise."

He tipped her face up to make her look at him. "I'm trying to understand. Really. Why is he so important to you?" When she didn't answer, he ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "Damnit, Buffy, what am I missing here? Why is this such a big-"

"BECAUSE HE WAS THERE!" The words burst out of her of their own accord.

Silence rang through the room as the two stared at each other.

"He was there," she said more quietly. "When you were… when… when everyone else…" she took a deep breath. "He kept me sane. I can't give him what he really wants; that belongs to you, but I'll be _damned_ if he doesn't get the respect he deserves."

Angel opened and closed his mouth a few times, leaving him looking rather like a fish (though still a too-attractive-for-her-piece-of-mind fish) while she rambled on, trying to compose herself.

"I'm not trying to say you should tip-toe around all his feelings, because god knows you'd both explode if you tried to hold in this whole sibling rivalry thing you've got going. Just… don't cross that line. I won't take your side."

She watched him as he tried to digest everything she said. He still didn't entirely understand, she knew. On some level he got it, but for now, he couldn't quite grasp it. But he tried. He trusted her.

That meant the world to her.

She touched his cheek. "I love you."

He closed his eyes, savoring her touch, her words. His throat seemed suddenly dry as he tried to speak. "It's been years since I've heard you say that," he whispered.

A bittersweet smile curved her lips. "I know."

Giving his cheek a lingering caress, she dropped her hand and turned to leave. She stopped in the doorway, her voice serious again.

"I meant what I said. I love you, but Spike means a lot to me. Don't try to belittle that, because I won't take your side."

Angel nodded imperceptively, going into brood mode. Buffy took one last look at him when something in the window behind him caught her eye. She went pale, running up to the window and almost pressing her nose against the glass.

Angel followed her to the window, looking between Buffy and the brunette on the street below.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Kennedy?" she whispered.

"Kennedy?" he repeated, his gaze shooting back to the girl on the street. "But isn't she…?" He trailed off, looking up to find that Buffy had already taken off at a dead run. "No. No! Buffy!"

He sprinted after her, calling for her all the while. He bolted down the stairway after her and ran straight out of the building, right into the bright sunshine. Skidding to a halt, he muttered a few choice words as he leapt back into the safety of the building.

He turned around, a thunderous scowl darkening his features. "Get Gunn," he snapped at the nearest employee.

The girl in question looked at him in shock for a second. "What?"

"Charles Gunn. Law Division. Find him," he bit off as the girl rushed off. He turned to the next available employee.

"Wesley Wyndham-Price."

The man just nodded and ran off.

"You stupid, bleedin' ponce!" Angel turned around to see Spike running towards him. "What the bloody hell did you do to her?"

"Nothing!" he said defensively. "She thought she saw Kennedy and ran off before I could stop her!"

"Kennedy? But she's-"

"I know," said Angel in clipped tones.

"Oh Christ," said Spike, looking out into the sunshine.

**

* * *

**

Buffy ran as fast as she could, trying in vain to catch up to the slayer look-alike. Somewhere between the office and the street, she realized it was impossible, that Kennedy was dead. It only made her run faster, desperate to catch whatever was masquerading as the fallen slayer.

She caught a flash of the look-alike across the street and hurried to cross. She had almost gotten to the middle of the street when she ran straight into a barrier. Confused, she reached out a hand and rapped on the invisible barrier. She backed up in the other direction, anxious to get out of the street, until she ran up against another invisible wall in the other direction. Panicked, she reached around and found walls in every direction. She was boxed in on all sides, looking like a frantic mime in the middle of the street.

A honk blared and she looked up to realize a car was coming right at her. She jumped up just in time to avoid getting hit, landing on the car's roof. She kept her balance on top of the car as it continued forward, but was knocked off again when it took her straight into the invisible barrier.

As she tumbled back onto the street, she dimly heard voices calling her name. She landed hard onto the ground and looked up in time to see another car grill. She barely had time to brace herself for impact before everything went black.

**

* * *

**

Two figures stood in the shadows, watching the proceedings.

"You weren't exaggerating," one said to the other.

"No."

The first one paused for a moment, its eyes taking on a sadistic gleam before speaking.

"It seems I can use your talents."


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey! So I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this since I've been posting on Mondays for the most part, but since I'm not going to be home until tomorrow night and I left you guys on a pretty big cliffhanger, I figured I'd go ahead and post tonight instead. Many thanks, as always, go to Love-el-ly Joy. Particularly since the original version of this was lousy with typos and twice she caught me trying to violate one of my big writing pet peeves. Anyway, MANY thanks go to all who reviewed. Hope you enjoy this one - let me know what you think! **

"Buffy!" five different voices shouted at once. Angel and Spike stood as close to the sunlight as they could without actually standing in it. Written plainly across both faces was shock and pure frustration and rage at their inability to help. From beside them, Giles sprinted into the street, with Gunn close at his heels. The cars had all stopped while the driver of the car that hit her hurried out of said car.

Giles dropped to his knees beside the Slayer. "Buffy! Buffy, can you hear me?" he said frantically. He opened her eyelids, checking her non-responsive pupils. Discouraged, he put one hand on her chest, the other on her stomach to make sure she was still breathing.

He took a moment to get himself under control, but when he spoke, he couldn't prevent the tremor in his voice. "She's alive, but unconscious."

The girl who hit her was wringing her hands in distress. "I couldn't stop in time! She just landed right in front of me!"

"We need to get her inside," said Gunn. "We have a hospital wing that can take care of her."

"No! I've heard about things like this," said the frantic woman, still winging her hands. "You're not supposed to move her until the ambulance comes!"

Giles looked at Wes, who had just made his way to them. Wes smoothly stepped forward. "Why don't you come this way," he said. "I'll get you some tea to help soothe your nerves while we wait for the ambulance and such."

He walked the still-babbling woman away as Giles and Gunn looked at each other.

"_Should_ we move her?" said Gunn uncertainly.

Giles frowned. "Probably not, but we're attracting attention. We can't stay-"

As if summoned by magic, which was not altogether improbable for Wolfram & Hart, four men with a backboard and stretcher came running full speed out of the building. Giles raised his brows at their pace.

Gunn just smirked. "Angel obviously put the fear of God into them," he remarked.

Giles meant to smile at the comment, but as he looked down at Buffy's unconscious form, he found he just didn't have it in him. As he watched the medics carefully put her on the backboard, he marveled, not for the first time, how someone who radiated such strength and vitality could look so small and delicate while unconscious.

They followed the stretcher into the building where Angel and Spike waited silently, neither daring to speak to the other in their mutual frustration. They both matched their pace to the stretcher, walking alongside it and clenching their fists. Desperate to feel some semblance of control over the situation to drown out his utter helplessness, Angel started barking out orders.

"Where's Wesley?" he said.

"Dealing with the driver," said Gunn.

"Fine, Gunn, go and find Fred. Tell her to expect us in the hospital wing."

As Gunn took off, an unconcerned Andrew walked around a corner. His eyes widened as he saw Buffy on the stretcher. "Holy crap! What happened?"

"Car," said Giles tersely.

"Felled by the most ord-"

Angel cut him off before he could start. "Andrew, go help Fred prep the room."

Andrew opened his mouth again, but Angel cut him off at the pass with a sharp "Now!"

"Giles," he said, turning to the man on the other side of the stretcher. Giles leveled a stare at him and Angel reminded himself that he wasn't the only one who cared about Buffy. "I imagine you'll want to stay with her."

"Yes," he said tersely.

"Spike-"

"Don't even try it, Peaches."

**

* * *

**

"…a sprained wrist," Fred was saying, reading from the report her medical team had written, "several contusions, of course, bruises and scrapes, but the real cause for concern is her cracked skull."

"But will she be okay?" asked Angel, still pacing around the small room adjoining Buffy's sickroom. Giles sat in a chair in the back of the room, his head in his hands.

Fred looked at both of them with a world of sympathy. "Nobody can ever guarantee what will come of a head wound; they're notoriously unpredictable. My _opinion_ is that, particularly given her slayer healing, she'll be fine, though she will be out for a while. The good news is that we stopped the swelling in her brain before it had too much of a chance to start, but I can't promise you anything."

Angel swore under his breath before swiping a hand over his eyes. "Thanks, Fred, for everything."

She touched his arm. "She's strong. She'll be okay."

Angel just nodded. "I want someone in there with her at all times. Just in case someone evil got past Lorne's screening, or…"

Fred nodded as Harmony knocked on the door. "Boss," she said, her squeaky voice oddly unperturbed against the tension of the room, "that Anne girl you wanted me to call is on the phone for you."

Angel blew out a deep breath. "Thanks, Harm"

"I need to make a call over to Europe," said Giles without taking his head from his hands.

Harmony almost rolled her eyes. "I don't know what you guys are so worried about, it's not like she ever stays dead anyway."

"That's enough, Harm!" Angel said as he walked out of the room to take the phone call.

**

* * *

**

Spike looked down at Buffy as she lay unconscious in the hospital bed. Filled with nervous energy, he got up and paced the room, his eyes landing on Buffy every few seconds. He sat back down in the chair beside her bed and looked back down at her again. His knee started to jiggle. He got up and walked to the window. He walked back to her bed again. After pacing the room a few more times like a caged tiger, he finally exploded.

"Goddamnit, Buffy!" he yelled angrily at the unconscious girl. "How could you be so bloody stupid? Running blindly after people you know are dead? Since when is that a good idea?" He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I mean, did you learn nothing from the First? Or, you know, seven years on the Hellmouth? You know better!"

She lay still and silent in response, which only seemed to enrage Spike further. "What the hell happened to 'I'll be careful, I can take care of myself,' huh? Is this you being careful?" he stopped pacing and grabbed the handles on the side of the bed. "You're smarter than this!" he yelled.

The door clicked shut and Spike's head whipped around to see Angel standing in the doorway. He straightened up, wiping his palms on his pants. "I… uh… was just checking… No reactions, or… um, non-responsive. She's still out."

"So I see," Angel said. A small smile played around his lips, but other than that, he made no comment about what he'd overheard. He walked over to Buffy's bedside and picked up her hand, stroking her ring finger, where she once wore his ring. His fingers brushed her pulse point, just long enough to feel her strong, steady pulse. She would be fine. Head injury or no, this was _Buffy_**. **Somewhat steadier withthat certainty strong in his gut, he turned to Spike.

"We're going to need to talk to Fred and Lorne about what we saw out there," he said. "The sooner the better."

Spike looked about ready to argue, but bit his tongue and nodded. "I guess the rest of my lecture can wait till she wakes up. Shouldn't someone be in here though?"

Angel nodded. "Giles should be coming in any minute, once he gets off the phone with Xander or Willow or whoever he's talking to."

**

* * *

**

Two figures sat in a large, shadowy room, one across from the other. The taller of the two leaned back into his chair, his pose displaying a deceptive sense of ease and leisure which only seemed to unsettle the creature across from him.

"So the Slayer has an informant," he said, as his bright yellow eyes seemed to glow out from the shadow of his face. "You're sure."

"As sure as I'm sitting here. I overheard an empath demon and another girl talking about a Dankaar demon going after the Slayer on their way out of the bar."

"I see."

The second man fought the urge to fidget in his chair.

"Is that all the information you have for me?"

"I didn't-" the man cut himself off. "Yes," he said.

The tall figure silently stared at the man for a moment, before finally speaking. "You may go."

**

* * *

**

After two hours of Angel demanding that Fred get to work on finding out the cause of what they'd seen in the street, then changing his mind and demanding that she keep Buffy's medical progress her first priority, then changing his mind again, a very frustrated Fred had ordered him out of the room to go check on Buffy.

And so a few minutes later, Angel opened the door to Buffy's hospital room to find Giles asleep in his chair, his head pillowed on his arm next to Buffy on the mattress, his mouth slightly open and his glasses askew. With a small smile, Angel gently touched his shoulder, waking him up.

"Giles. Let's get you into an actual room."

The older man slowly set up, blinking a few times and fixing his glasses. "Angel," he said, his voice still somewhat rough from sleep. He took in his surroundings, then looked down next to him, finally awake. "I'm sorry, it seems Buffy was right about my, erm, need for rest."

Angel looked at the clearly exhausted Watcher. "It's no problem, I can watch after her for now, you go get some sleep."

"No, no I'm quite alright."

Angel frowned. "Really, Giles, it's no problem. It would probably be better if-"

"No," Giles said sharply. "I can stay."

Angel frowned, obviously taken aback. "Why?"

Giles looked at the vampire and sighed. He looked down at Buffy and said nothing for a while. Angel remained silent as well, letting the moment stretch from seconds to minutes. Angel had given up on getting an answer by the time Giles finally spoke.

"Buffy tried to get in touch with her father."

Angel looked up, his brows rising in surprise, both by the news and the non-sequitor.

Giles continued. "It was shortly after we had moved to Europe. Sunnydale had just collapsed, taking her mother's grave with it, Dawn was at school in Rome, and Buffy was… Well, I imagine she was lonely. We were… not quite as close as we had once been. I agreed to help her find him in between trying to set up the new Council and school."

Giles sighed, leaning back and taking off his glasses to clean them with his handkerchief. "She finally found him, still in Spain with some woman or other maybe five or ten years older than Buffy herself." Giles smiled faintly. "Living the stereotype, as she said."

Angel looked at Buffy, feeling, for some reason, almost surprised to find her still unconscious, still oblivious to the conversation going on around her.

"She came into my office, quite clearly nervous. More nervous than I could ever recall seeing her. I-it very nearly broke my heart. Still worse was the fact that she was trying to conceal her nervousness from me." Giles looked down. "As I said, we hadn't been as close as we once were and…" He sighed again. "In any event, she told me she was flying out to Spain in a few days. I-I feared she was setting herself up for disappointment. We quarreled and she left angry, but I still arrived to the airport to see her off a few days later."

Angel found himself hooked, desperate to hear more though entirely clueless as to how it was related. "What happened?" he asked.

Giles looked at him. "I don't know; she never told me exactly what happened. All I know is that a few days later, she showed up in front of my flat, tearstained face, luggage in tow. It was the first time she had cried in front of me in… in quite a long time."

Angel stared at Buffy, resentment coursing through him at the man who didn't appreciate the precious gifts he had.

"A few days later," Giles continued, "we were walking back from a lunch meeting with a benefactor when we saw the aftermath of a car accident. Two women were involved, both injured badly. One girl's parents rushed on the scene, frantic and fussing over their daughter, talking to the paramedics, riding in the ambulance with her. The other… well she was quite alone a-and unnoticed. I imagine Buffy was the only one watching her as they loaded the girl into the ambulance alone and drove away."

Giles looked at Angel, finally getting to the point. "She turned to me and said 'If that happens to me, I want you to stay with me.'"

Angel stood, dumbfounded. He ached at the fact that Buffy, though always surrounded by people, could feel so alone. He finally walked over to the other side of the bed, pulling a chair with him, and sat down across from the Watcher.

**

* * *

**

Several hours, a nap, and a quick shower later (at the direction of Anne, who had taken over Buffy's room and shooed him out to take care of himself) Giles made his way to the cafeteria. Stepping into the noisy, brightly lit room, he was only slightly surprised to see options for human and demon alike. After selecting his meal and fixing a decent cup of tea, (finally!) he found Wesley sitting alone at a table. Somewhat relieved, he made his way over.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked, feeling almost like the new kid at school.

Mug halfway up to his lips, Wesley looked up before gesturing to the seat in front of him. "Not at all! Please."

Giles sat down, picking up his fork and taking a sip of his tea. "Mmm, your cafeteria has surprisingly good tea; my compliments."

"Does it?" said Wesley. "I haven't actually tried it, but that's nice to know."

Giles looked at him in surprise. "You haven't had it? What do you drink?"

Wesley shifted uncomfortably, oddly reluctant to admit it. "Coffee."

Giles's wide-eyed shock would have been hilarious to anyone else. Instead, it left Wesley feeling inexplicably guilty. "The caffeine helps with the long hours," he said, almost defensively.

"O-of course!" Giles said. "Sorry, it was just a surprise."

"It's not as if I don't drink tea at all. I do have a supply at home."

"Of course, I didn't mean to imply otherwise."

An uncomfortable silence settled over them for a moment, as both concentrated on eating. Wesley cleared his throat awkwardly. "What happened to Buffy was almost certainly related to the demon she's after."

"I agree. The Kennedy impersonation was, of course, a dead giveaway. And whatever was trapping her in the street was designed to work exclusively on her. The barrier had no effect at all on the car," said Giles, trying to mentally brush away the image he had of Buffy, held completely helpless as a car came at her.

"The Dankaar doesn't have the power to create invisible barriers like that," said Wesley.

Giles looked at him. "We don't know _what_ the Dankaar can do. We can't translate half of the passage."

Wesley conceded the point with a nod. "Of course. We should check the untranslated passages against any words we can find that could indicate these barriers, but I suspect this has more to do with this mysterious second player."

"I expect you're right about that. Any theories?"

"Maybe a spell?" Wesley suggested halfheartedly.

Giles frowned. "It's possible, of course, I can talk to Willow about that, but I rather doubt it. It all happened too quickly, especially since it was clearly designed to be very specific to her."

Wesley learned back in his chair in contemplation. "How is Buffy?" he asked, changing the subject.

Giles sighed. "No change. She's quite stable, we just…" he cleared his throat. "We need wait until she wakes up to see if the head wound had any impact on... on her brain."

Wesley nodded. "She's sustained heavy injuries before, though. Slayer healing is certainly nothing to sneeze at."

"Yes, of course," said Giles, staring off into space. Wesley didn't envy the man his position as surrogate father to a woman slated to die young. And often, it seemed.

Wesley stood, holding his mug. "I need a refill. Would you like some more tea?"

Giles looked up in surprise at Wesley's outstretched hand.

"I promise I can still make a decent cup of British tea," Wesley said wryly at Giles's surprise.

Giles smiled faintly, passing his mug to the other man. "I would like some, thank you."

**

* * *

**

Two more days went by in this fashion. Giles spent as much time in Buffy's room as possible while still researching and, occasionally, eating and sleeping at the demands of Annie. Angel spent as much time in her room as he could as well, while still using all of his contacts to track down information on the demon and its accomplice. He often took the paperwork Harmony thrust at him into Buffy's room to finish, just to be there.

Spike and Gunn continued with recon and research into odd deaths. Useless as it sometimes felt, it felt good to be doing something. Angel watched over her in the first half of the night while Spike took the second half, just after his patrol with Gunn. In the mid-afternoon, Annie would show up, demanding to know when everyone involved last ate or slept, and ordered everyone out of the room to take care of their own business while she kept Buffywatch.

The longer she stayed unconscious, of course, the more concerned everyone became. Angel spent his time with her talking to her. She had been out for four days when Angel sat by her bedside, once again holding her hand and talking to her. He brushed her hair off her face, his hand lingering over the scar on her neck. The one he gave her.

"It's so odd to have you so silent and still," he told her. "You're never this quiet."

Once again, he lightly brushed his fingers over her scar before picking her hand up again.

"Even when you sleep, you make little noises. Like a cat, or-"

He broke off abruptly as he felt her fingers tighten slightly on his.

"Buffy? Buffy!"

He punched the button by her bed to call someone in. He could see her fingers twitching some more. Her breathing changed slightly. He had no idea if this was good news or terrible.

"Buffy, please wake up. I know you're trying to." He looked around the room, then back at her, willing her to wake up. "I know you hate hospitals, but-"

"And yet," she said from her bed in a very weak, yet very much alert voice as Giles and Fed came rushing in, "Here I am. In a hospital."

Fred and Giles stared in openmouthed shock, before huge grins broke over their faces. Angel struggled to tamp down his own elation, staring openly at her. Finally he spoke.

"You're not in the hospital."

Buffy raised her eyebrows, which hurt so she stopped. "Angel, I think I know a hospital when I'm in one. Which I am. Frequently."

" You're in the hospital wing of an office building."

"Don't argue semantics with me," she said, her throat clearly dry. "Hospital wing. As in hospital. Which is where I am."

Giles smiled as Angel poured her a glass of water and helped her tip it to her mouth. "Yes, you'll be just fine."

Grateful for the water, she smiled at both Angel and Giles. "Please," she said, a little more easily. "It takes ore than a car to the face to take me down."

"How silly of us to worry," said Giles.

She smiled at him before the thought occurred to her. "My face! How does it-"

"You look just fine," Fred assured her. "Barely any scarring."

"Thank God for slayer healing."

Fred smiled at her. "Okay, everybody out," she ordered. "I need to run some tests, and then you're going to need to rest," she said to Buffy, who nodded, used to injuries and their aftermath.

Angel and Giles reluctantly turned to leave before she spoke. "Angel?"

"Yes?" he asked, turning around, still overjoyed to have her awake and looking at him.

'I don't really sound like a cat when I sleep, do I?"

Angel struggled to keep a straight face. "No…more like a little kitten."

He ducked as she threw a pillow at him, closing the door behind him with one of the first real smiles he'd had in days.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys, sorry this was late. I blame Love-el-ly Joy :-p Kidding. Really, though, I start to run out of steam towards the end of stories and I don't want to do that, so I'm trying to work through it while still delivering a good story. But only two more chapters after this and I should be done. Hopefully the light will dawn as I start to write this week and all of my glorious plans for the chapter will click into place. I just finished reading an extraordinary and unique fic, so it may have gotten the creative juices flowing again. We'll see :) Anyway, thanks for the patience and thanks for the reviews. Like I said, next chapter should be an awesome one :D Anyway, let me know what you think of this one. If there's something you'd like to see, a moment or a scene or anything, let me know. I won't promise it'll end up in the fic, but, while I have the big showdown all planned out, I don't really have anything else worked out, so I'm open to ideas to help the pacing and the lead up. Which also means poor Love-el-ly Joy will be faced with me whining "I can't think of anything for this scene. Boo hoo" to her every couple of days if I don't hit upon an idea that sparks another idea and so on :-p Meanwhile, hope you enjoy this one!**

"Willow, I promise," Buffy said from her hospital bed, "I'm perfectly fine. You don't need to come out here; you have enough to deal with."

"You _say_ you're fine," Willow's voice came over the speakerphone," but you've been known to lie about that. I know you, Buffy; you're liable to overdo it too soon and wind up back in the hospital. You got _hit in the head_ with a _car_. Take it easy."

"I couldn't be taking it any easier, Will. Really. Fred's holding me hostage in this room here and she recruited Angel, Giles and Anne to make sure I stay here. I'm a prisoner," she said sullenly.

"Good," said Willow. "I knew I liked Fred."

Buffy glared at the phone.

"Buffy, please," said Willow, her voice breaking slightly. Buffy's face instantly softened. "Take it easy. I can't lose you too."

"You won't. I promise. Wills, you have more important things to worry about right now."

"No, I'm okay. Really."

"Will, _I'm_ not okay, I don't believe for a second that you are. Don't try to get through this on your own, not again. Lean on Xander. He's a grown, semi-muscular man, he can take it."

"Semi?" came Xander's indignant shout from the background.

Buffy smiled but continued. "You're not alone in this. And I'll be there as soon as I can beat this thing."

"Don't rush it. I'm doing fine, really."

"Don't even try it," said Buffy. "I'll concentrate on getting better if you concentrate on yourself."

"Fine, but you just say the word, Buffy, and I'm there with some witchy healing," said Willow, her voice filled with false bravado.

"Thanks, Will, but I've got my own supernatural healing. Which everyone seems to have forgotten about. Besides," she said pointedly, inducing everyone in the room in her significant glance, "I'm _fine_."

"Buffy, if it were anyone else, I'd confine them to bed rest for at least a week," said Fred. "I know you have super healing, but you got hit in the _head_ by a car. You need to give yourself at least a day before trying to move around."

"Listen to Fred," said Willow.

"Of course I'll listen to Fred," Buffy said innocently. "Why would you assume-"

"Don't even try the innocent act. Why do you think you're talking to? I'll only stay over here if you promise to stay in bed all day."

"Aww, come on, Wills! I've fought hell beasts in worse shape than this!" Buffy whined.

"I know you can't see me right now, but I have my resolve face one. Even the Great Slayer of Sunnydale can't stand up to my resolve face."

Buffy's cheeks burned as Angel and Giles smiled at Willow's antics, remembering the earlier days of the Scooby gang. Xander could be heard laughing in the background on the phone.

Wesley raised his eyebrows. "The Great Slayer of Sunnydale?" he said quietly.

Giles chuckled. "Buffy saved a group of benign demons over in England. Every week for about a month, they showed up at our headquarters with fruit to pay homage to the 'Great Slayer of Sunnydale.'" Giles was still chuckling at Buffy's scowl. "I'm afraid no one has let her live it down since."

"I'm still waiting for the promise," Willow said.

"I promise I'll stay," said Buffy sullenly, a slight pout settling over her features.

"Good," said Willow. "Now I'll-"

"WAIT!" Andrew cried, bursting through the door.

Everyone looked up, startled and alert. Willow's now-alarmed voice could be heard over the chorus of "What is it?" Andrew cleared his throat and straightened his shirt. "Willow, please stay on the phone for this. I feel I may need your support." He paused dramatically, looking around the room. "I'm glad you're all here for this moment. I have an announcement to make. Willow, is Xander there?"

"Hanging on your every word," Xander said dryly over the phone.

"Good," said Andrew. "Thank you all for gathering."

"We didn't-" Gunn began.

"It's best just to go along with it," Giles told him.

"For so long, I've kept um… a part of myself hidden. I've… uh… carried this secret around for a while now. Like Clark Kent and Peter Parker, I've hidden this part of me from the outside world-"

"Here we go," said Xander over the phone.

"Like Bilbo Baggins, I've carried this secret burden-"

Buffy's head dropped back onto the pillow as she groaned.

"But finally," he continued, "I've decided to reveal my burden with Frodo, Galdalf and the Fellowship."

Buffy frowned. "Wait – who's Frodo in this scenario?"

"I realized that in order to truly be free, I must release this burden and spread my wings-"

"Get to the point, Andrew," said Willow.

"And as I do so, I realize that the only acceptance that matters is the acceptance of my true self-"

"Andrew, if you don't get to the point soon, I will make you spit it out, bed rest be damned."

"My friends," said Andrew, pausing long enough to get Angel's crew, relatively unused to his theatrics, sitting on the edge of their seats, "I am… homosexual."

There was a moment of silence until Lorne spoke up. "Wait, did we not already know that?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Well _we_ did. We would have told Bilbo here if he was confused."

"Were you actually… in the closet before?" said Gunn.

Giles was cleaning his glasses with a handkerchief and, for once, Wesley almost missed his glasses for just such a purpose.

"Thank you for your support, Willow," said Andrew.

Willow, who hadn't said anything, supportive or otherwise, replied with a non-committal "Yeah, well… good for you," with Xander muttering in the background about how often Andrew "accidentally" grazed his ass. "Okay," she said, "well, Buffy, if you need anything, just give me a call."

"I will. Thanks, Will, and take care of yourself."

"You too," the witch said before hanging up."

"Okay," said Angel, "now that we got that… uh… taken care of, Fred, Lorne, I need you guys pounding the pavement, trying to find out who or what this thing teamed up with."

"Take Andrew with you," said Buffy.

"Have I done something to offend you, slayerkins?" said Lorne quietly. Buffy smiled in response and glanced over at Andrew, who was getting his hand smacked away from Spike's hair.

"Andrew is one of those people who, as soon as you become completely convinced of his total uselessness, he goes and surprises the hell out of you," she told him.

"You sure you're not just trying to keep him out of your room while you're trapped in here?"

"Well you _could_ take me with you instead," she said sweetly.

"Nice try, blondie."

**

* * *

**

"Are we there yet?" whined Andrew.

"Almost, sugar pie."

"I have to pee."

"So you said," said Fred. "Repeatedly."

"Right up there," Lorne cut in, pointing to a seedy looking bar just ahead.

"Don't you know any demon bars that _aren't_ sketchy looking?" said Andrew. "This is, like, the fourth hole-in-the-wall you've taken us to."

Fred raised her eyebrows. "Have you ever seen a respectable looking demon bar?"

"Hey!" said Lorne, offended. "Caritas was decorated with a certain flair, I like to think."

"An exception to the rule," Fred allowed as they stepped into the bar. She looked around pointedly. "But I think the rule still stands."

"What can I get you guys?" asked the bartender, walking up to the trio.

"Some information, pal," said Andrew, trying to look menacing. "And we ain't gonna leave till you tell us what we need to know!"

The bartender raised his eyebrows.

"Uhh… why don't you go hit the bathroom, there, Sparky," said Lorne.

"Oh… yeah," said Andrew, about to do a potty dance. "Um, where is it?"

Andrew ran off in the direction the bartender pointed, leaving Fred and Lorne with the bartender. "Sorry about that, Joe," said Lorne. "We are looking for information, though, if you have it."

"I'm not a snitch, Lorne. That's not my game," said the bartender warily.

"I know, pumpkin, and I wouldn't ask, but this is life and death."

"It always is."

"Have you heard of a demon who's trying to take out the Slayer?" asked Fred.

Joe-the-bartender settled his gaze on Fred. "There's always a demon who's trying to take out the Slayer," he said.

"Yeah, but this one's making waves. He's trying to take out the whole slayer line, starting with the head honcho," said Lorne.

The bartender sucked in a breath, then eyed them for a moment. "From what I've always heard about the Council and their slayers, that might be a mercy."

Fred's eyes widened. "A mercy?"

"Things have changed," said Lorne.

Joe tossed his rag to the side and scanned the bar out of habit, before meeting their gaze. "I've heard that rumor."

"The head Slayer and her watcher are in LA as we speak to personally deal with this thing."

Joe's eyes widened upon hearing that rumor confirmed. "Personally? Things really have changed."

"Yeah, and let me tell you, blondie doesn't take kindly to her girls getting picked off," said Lorne, pointedly bringing the subject back to the Dankaar.

Joe sighed. "I make it a policy not to know anything about anyone or their nefarious plans. I find it's better for my health. I really can't promise you any information."

"Hey, so what'd I miss?" said Andrew, bouncing back to them.

Fred cleared her throat. "Um… not much. Hey, why don't you and I go take a look around while Lorne and Joe finish chatting?"

Joe shook his head. "No, I think we're just about done here." He looked at Lorne. "You're welcome to poke around here and talk to whoever you want, but if I get any complaints, you're outta here."

Lorne nodded reluctantly. "Thanks, sugar pie. I guess that's all I can ask," he said as the trio walked away.

"Man, this blows," said Andrew with a pout.

"Another bust," Fred agreed.

"Not, necessarily, sweetcakes," said Lorne. "Joe may be cautious, but he told us we could look around."

"You think that's his way of telling us something's here?" asked Fred.

"He plays his cards pretty close to his chest, but it's possible we'll find something here."

"Smart man," said Andrew.

Fred frowned at him. "So where to we start?"

Lorne glanced around what appeared to be a very rough crowd. "Um… maybe we should just start looking around first, before we try talking to anyone," he said nervously.

Fred chuckled as they walked out of the side door to tentatively explore the alley beside the bar. "Am I the only one who wonders why they asked the playground rejects to go on this mission?"

"Hey, we know what it is to deal with physically intimidating creatures. We're no strangers to pain and humiliation," said Lorne.

Fred smiled at him. "Very inspiring."

"Swirlies aren't so bad if you know the janitor's schedule. Wedgies still suck, though it depends on your underwear," said Andrew.

"Girls tend to go more for psychological warfare," said Fred. "I knew a few girls in high school that would make Machievelli proud."

"I always thought-" Andrew broke off as he tripped over a foot. "Oh, sorry," he mumbled until they got a closer look at the figure lying on the ground.

Lorne got a sick feeling as he noted the unusual tint to the demon's skin. "No."

Fred tried to gently shake his shoulder. "Sir? Are you okay?" She shook him a little harder. "Hey, are you-" she broke off in a horrified gasp as she turned the figure over and looked right into the unseeing eyes of Steve.

"Oh god!"

**

* * *

**

Angel placed a glass of water in Fred's hand.

"Somehow it knew he had talked to us," she was saying. She took a sip of her water, trying to get herself under control. "I mean, I know a bar isn't the more circumspect place to go, but-" She broke off, putting her head in her hands. Angel wanted to do the same. He was so sick of death.

"Boss?" Harmony's voice piped in over the intercom. "The nurses caught Buffy trying to escape her room again."

Angel bit back a frustrated sigh even has the amused glint entered his eyes. "Spike?" he said, turning to the blond vampire.

"You're not surprised, are you?" Spike said.

"No," said Angel, running a hand over his face. "I would be going crazy too. Could… could you just pop in and keep her entertained? Keep her from going stir-crazy?"

Spikes eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah, sure," he said, recovering.

"Good," said Angel. "Thanks."

Spike nodded and made his way over to Buffy's room. He opened her door to see her up and pacing the room. Upon hearing the door open, she jumped back into her bed and covered herself up, super-speed and all, but not quite fast enough.

Spike grinned. "Good effort, but you're stuck here for now."

Buffy scowled darkly at him. "At least it's you and not that sadistic harpy of a nurse."

"I may not rate as highly as Captain Forehead, but I'm glad I rate higher than sadistic-harpy-nurse."

Buffy's scowl deepened. "Spike…" she warned.

"Don't scowl so hard; your face might get stuck like that."

"Do you really want to piss of a slayer with a whole lot of energy to burn?"

Spike cleared his throat. "So! Um… how's life in here?"

"Fine. So fine, in fact, that I think I've made a 100% recovery and can leave any minute now."

"Uh huh. I'm sure," he said plopping down in the chair next to her bed.

"Come on, Spike, you've _seen_ me back on my feet and fighting evil in worse shape than this."

"Not my call, pet. Though I would take it easy after taking a car to the face, if it were me."

Buffy still glared at him.

"Right, entertainment. Hey! Look! A TV!" said Spike.

"The only thing on is Days of Our Lives. I'm pretty sure two of the characters are vampires, which makes me itch for a good slay."

"I don't remember you being this petulant, slayer."

"I don't remember ever being _held hostage in a hospital room_!"

Privately thinking that if someone didn't let the slayer out in the next few hours, she was going to tear the bloody door off its hinges, Spike looked around the room for something to amuse her. Spotting a pile of Barbie dolls nearby, obviously for any kids stuck in there, he picked up a Ken doll and looked at it for a moment.

"You know who this kind of looks like?" he said.

"Who?"

"A certain ex-commando ex of yours."

"What?"

"Surely you haven't forgotten about Riley, pet."

Torn between annoyance and curiosity, she just stayed silent as Spike rooted through the Barbie clothes box until her found a pair of cammo pants and an army green shirt. Crowing in triumph, he quickly put them on the Riley Barbie.

Buffy smothered a smile as she took in the startling resemblance between the doll and her ex.

"'Captain Cardboard here, reporting for duty!'" said Spike in a low imitation of Riley.

"Spike…" she said, the warning in her voice undermined by the slight laugh accompanying it.

"'Why Buffy,'" said Spike-as-Riley, "'You're so hot, my masculinity is not at all threatened by the fact that you can kick my ass!'"

A quick giggle escaped Buffy before she could stop it. It only encouraged Spike further as he made the Riley-Barbie strut around in his cammo.

"We had a good relationship for a while," she said, defending her ex. "It was probably one of my more healthy relationships," she said, pointedly.

Spike snorted. "I don't know about that. How did the boy even keep up with you?"

Buffy's face flamed as she glared darkly at him. Sensing that he was treading into dangerous territory, he went back to his impersonation.

"'You see, I have no problem with strong women since my mentor is a woman. She's also psychotic nut who read Frankenstein a little too much but apparently never got to the ending. That's not a problem, is it?'"

Buffy rolled her eyes, hiding a smile.

"'Oh Buffy!'" exclaimed Riley-Spike, as the doll touched her arm. "'It's so wonderful to meet a girl who hates all HST's just like me!'"

Spike quickly grabbed a darker haired doll, dressing it in black and trying to get its hair to stick straight up. Satisfied that it was as good as the doll would get, he made the new Barbie punch Barbie-Riley in the face.

"'Who are you?'" asked Barbie-Riley.

Spike dropped his voice even lower into a rumble. "'I'm Angel! Helper of the helpless! I'm… _the ex-boyfriend_!' Dun dun dunnnnnn"

The Riley-Barbie faced Buffy, its unchanging expression looking somehow more pathetic than before. "'Suddenly I feel so inadequate,'" Spike's voice got a little squeakier. The Riley doll turned to the Angel doll. "'You will never out-macho me!'"

"'I've out-machoed fledglings more macho than you!'"

Buffy was, once again, unable to stop the bubble of mirth that escaped her as Spike had the two dolls break into a fight, or at least a bizarre Barbie-approximation of a fight, complete with sound effects.

"And don't you forget it."

Spike looked up from his Barbie's to see the real Angel standing in the doorway, a smile playing around his lips at Spike's antics. Buffy's quick laughter dissolved into full out, belly laughs at the horrified look on Spike's face upon being caught playing with dolls.

Spike recovered. "Captain Forehead."

"Captain Peroxide."

Buffy held up the Riley doll. "And I guess Captain Cardboard makes three? I'm sensing a theme here."

They were saved from any attempt to respond when Giles poked his head in. "Oh good, all three of you are here."

"Oh captain my captain!" Buffy exclaimed to Giles, before dissolving into giggles. She got back under control only to realize all three men were staring at her. "Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint," she said, rolling her eyes.

"You were right," Giles said to Angel, "she is going stir-crazy."

Angel chuckled a little. "Did you want us here for something?"

"Yes!" the watcher exclaimed. "Wesley and I have found the breed of demon that trapped you in the street. Wesley is telling the others."

Buffy leaned forward. "What is it?"

"The only demon we've found that has the power to create specialized force fields against its opponents are the Westiff demons. They're usually harmless, only using their powers for self defense, but it appears in this case…"

"It teamed up with the Dakna demon to use its powers for evil," Buffy finished.

"Dankaar," both Giles and Angel automatically corrected as Spike smirked.

"Okay, that's good to know. Giles, get back to researching the Doo-dad. It's good to know about the Mastiff thing, but I think we need to get back to figuring the first demon out."

A muscle ticked in Giles' jaw. "She does that just to get to me, I'm convinced," he told Angel.

"I'll…" Buffy started to pout. "Just sit here until my jailers decide to free me."

"Well, you could," said Angel. "But that would be a waste of all the time I spent convincing Fred to let you do some Tai Chi with me."

Buffy leapt out of the bed. "Really?"

Angel put his hands on her shoulders. "Rules. You can ONLY do Tai Chi – there is to be no sparring, running, jumping, or anything else overly strenuous, or Fred will kill _both_ of us. And if Fred walks in and decides you're over exerting yourself, you have to go straight back here."

Buffy just nodded eagerly, "Deal."

**

* * *

**

The two figures sat in their shadowed room.

"Are we going to go for the Slayer any time soon or has this been a pleasant way to pass the time?"

The Dankaar stared at his companion with narrowed yellow eyes for a few moments. Not for the first time, the Westiff demon had the feeling his partner could see far more of him than he was comfortable with. The Dankaar finally spoke.

"Two days."


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm so sorry for the delay! Nothing at all was coming to mind until I finally just sat down and wrote and hoped for the best. And here's what I come up with. And to all of the people who loved the Barbie scene, I have to say, Love-el-ly Joy came up with that idea for somewhere else in the story and, while I went with something else for the scene in question, I decided I wouldn't rest until I could put a Spike-plays-with-Barbie's scene in the story! So many thanks to her! This was initially going to be all one chapter, but it got super long (much longer than I had intended) so I split it up into two. Not to worry though! Because I already have what is now Ch 10 written and I took so long to update this one, you'll get both posted tonight. Once again, thanks for reading and reviewing! **

**Oh - some suggestive thoughts going on at the beginning of this chapter. Nothing major though, still Teen rating. **

"Thank you," said Buffy reaching for a towel.

"For what?" asked Angel, grabbing his own towel to wipe off his torso.

"Well everything, really, but I was talking about the Tai Chi sessions most recently," she said, pointedly not looking at his chest. Torso. Torso was more clinical. Detached. Torsos weren't all sweaty and muscular and… oddly delicious looking. Chests, on the other hand…

God she needed to kill something. She clearly wasn't burning enough energy.

"Are you okay?" asked Angel.

"What? No. Yeah. What?"

"You look flushed. I thought you were doing better."

She blinked a few times, then shook her head to clear it. "No. Sorry, I'm fine. All better. But I forgot how… nice… Tai Chi could be."

"Me too," he said looking down at her. Caught up in the moment, they looked at each other, that old connection sizzling back to life.

Her breath caught. She wanted to lay her head down on that (very comfortable, she knew from experience) chest. She wanted to grab his head and bring his mouth down to hers. She wanted to trace his abs. With her tongue. His eyes darkened as he looked at her. God, she wanted-

"Lookin' good," said Gunn, barging in with a smirk, making the couple jump apart. Fred and Spike followed behind him. "Very…"

"Fluid? Graceful?" supplied Fred.

"Poncy? Lame?" Spike put in.

Gunn chuckled as Angel glared at Spike. "Since when did this room get so much traffic?" he muttered.

"I'm just checking up on Buffy here," said Fred.

That got her (admittedly wandering) attention. "What? I'm not a patient anymore!"

"I know," said Fred, " but you get the funniest look on your face when I mention it."

Buffy scowled. "I used to like you, Fred," she said, handing Angel his t-shirt.

"Is there a reason you guys are here?" asked Angel, taking his shirt and slipping it over his head. Buffy looked on in mourning as his chest and abs disappeared from view.

Spike smirked. "Yeah, we came to stop you guys from jumping all over each other."

Both Angel and Buffy glared.

"Watch it, Spike. I haven't had a good slay in way too long."

"Okay, but seriously, you said to let you know if anyone calls?" said Gunn.

"Yeah," said Buffy, "Who was it?"

"The caller ID said 'Riley.'"

Angel glowered. Spike wasn't much better. "Any reason you're calling your ex honey?"

Buffy rolled her eyes at both of them. "Yes, actually. Your little puppet show the other night made me think of it."

"Good going," Angel muttered to Spike.

"It's not my fault!" Spike protested.

"Since there's not much info on the Doo-dad demon," she said, grinning as Angel twitched, "it got me wondering if it was some kind of exotic demon. Since Riley works all over South America and whatnot, I thought he might be able to help."

Gunn whistled. "It's like some sort of convention of your exes."

"Some of my slayers work with him, as long as everything's aboveboard and there's no experimentation going on," she said with a look to Spike. "Helps me keep tabs on them to make sure a Maggie Walsh situation doesn't happen again, and, honestly, it's a good opportunity for the girls."

"That's… kind of brilliant, actually," said Angel reluctantly.

"I do what I can," she said with a wink, before sobering again. "Two of the slayers on his team trained with Allison. If they can help, I know they'd want in."

"Unfortunately, it turns out they can't," said Fred.

"You answered it?"

"Yeah, sorry I just didn't think I'd make it to you in time and you said he was hard to get a hold of and…"

"No, that's fine. Thanks. What did he say?"

"They haven't heard of anything called a Dankaar, but they'll be keeping an eye out for any information," said Fred. "He also offered to come with some of the slayers to help if you need any help with the fighting."

"She doesn't." said Angel.

"Got that right," said Spike.

Buffy shuddered at the thought of Angel, Spike and Riley all in one place. Just add Xander and total chaos would ensue. "I hope you told him no?"

"I told him muscle wasn't the problem here, but you would call him if you felt differently."

"Fred, I think I like you again," Buffy said with a smile.

Fred chuckled in response. "I think Charles and I are going to grab some lunch at the cafeteria if you wanna come."

Buffy glanced at Angel, then took a deep breath. "Actually, I promised Anne I'd get some ice cream with her. But first, I need some time alone with a punching bag. I really need to beat something up."

Spike smirked knowingly. "You know, that might only make it worse, luv," he murmured in her ear. She elbowed him sharply in the ribs. Angel, having heard it all, just smirked.

**

* * *

**

"Oh man!" Buffy all but moaned, tasting her ice cream. She tucked her wallet back in her pocket. "I almost forgot about this place!"

"You can travel the world, but you'll never beat it," Anne agreed.

"Mmm, and I can vouch for that," said Buffy eagerly. "To two hot chicks, gorging on ice cream and saving the world!"

"Buffy, you're the one with the world saving experience."

Buffy arched her brows. "You think you don't?"

Anne just looked at her questioningly.

"I've talked to some of those kids at the shelter. I'd say you've saved some of their worlds."

Anne just smiled at her. "Okay, so I bribed you with ice cream. You have to spill."

"Spill?"

"How are things with Angel?"

Buffy groaned. "God I almost jumped his bones earlier today. We were working out and he didn't have a shirt, and dear god, I was about to tackle him to the ground right then and there."

Anne smiled slyly, making Buffy shake her head vehemently.

"No! That's not something to smile about. Bad, remember? Heartache, pain, soullessness?" said Buffy.

Anne frowned. "You'd think, with all the crazy new power people on our side have these days, someone would find a way to fix that."

Buffy frowned. "I… yeah, you'd think."

Anne inwardly smiled. "What else was keeping you apart again?"

"It was… I don't really remember. Sunshine and picnics were mentioned at one point. I just remember a lot of pain." She scowled at Anne. "Hey, you trying to play matchmaker? I thought you were the one who told me to develop without a man."

Anne smiled innocently. "I was just wondering!"

"Uh huh."

Anne sobered. "I think you each have your own… tasks to perform right now, but you have a real connection. That means something."

"Yeah," said Buffy on a sigh. "Someth-"

She was cut off as someone ran right into her.

"Oops, sorry!" said the kid.

"Lucas?" said Anne. "Hey, how are you? I haven't seen you around the shelter for a while."

"Oh, you know, doing fine," he said with a too-bright-to-be-genuine grin.

"Okay," said Anne, doubtfully. "Well if you need anything, let me know."

"Yeah, will do. Bye!" said Lucas before running off.

Anne sighed. "I worry about that one."

"Why's that?" Buffy frowned.

"He was such a bright kid. His sister was all but raising him, and they were in a tight spot, but then she got sick."

"How bad?"

"Leukemia," said Anne. She sighed. "We did everything we could to find her medical help. Lucas's whole world revolved around taking care of her." Anne looked down. "She died about three weeks ago. Lucas… well he hasn't been the same since. He blows off school, started getting into trouble, and lately, stopped coming to the shelter."

"Understandable," said Buffy in sympathy.

"It is, but no one can reach him. Ruining his life isn't the way to honor his sister's memory."

Buffy stuck her hands in her pockets as she walked. "It's a tough age to…" she trailed off, searching her pockets.

"What is it?" said Anne.

"My wallet! It was in here when we paid for…" she trailed off as she looked in the direction Lucas had gone.

Comprehension dawning on Anne, she sighed. "Oh no. I'm so sorry, Buffy. I'll find him."

Buffy started to agree, before she abruptly changed her mind. "You know, Anne, let me get this one."

Anne looked at her doubtfully, making Buffy chuckle.

"I'm not gonna go all Slayer on him, don't worry. You're better with the whole 'troubled kids' thing, but I think with this one…"

Anne nodded in understanding as Buffy took off.

It was only a minute before Buffy caught up to the kid and tackled him to the ground.

"Hey, what's your problem?" the kid whined.

"My wallet," she said tersely.

"Did you lose it?" Lucas asked innocently.

"Look kid, I know it sucks to lose someone, but you can't just go around stealing to cope. Now give me back my wallet." Buffy inwardly cringed. _Smooth. Real smooth._

"I didn't-"

"Don't play innocent with me. Turn out your pockets."

"Look, lady," said Lucas, sounding closer to 19 than his 12 years. "I don't know what-"

"Okay, you've got till the count of three to either turn out your pockets or give me back my wallet before I get violent. One… Two…" She advanced menacingly. "Th-"

"Here!" said the kid, thrusting the wallet back to her.

She took it and looked at him for a minute. "Okay, I'm going to give you a break this time because I know how you feel, but-" _Wrong thing to say_, she thought as his whole body stiffened at her words.

"You don't know!" Lucas almost screamed. "You… you can't… She was my _sister!_ How could you… I…" He paced angrily a few times. "I just… I want…"

"You want to rail at the world. You want to scream and yell at the world until someone listens. The universe hurt you so badly and you just want to hurt it right back, but there's nothing to hurt, because there's no one to blame. And you cling to your anger and frustration because part of you is terrified that if you don't have that, you'll just stop. You'll just go all catatonic. And everyone's telling you it'll get better in time and you just want to hit them for their empty platitudes… for not getting it."

Lucas was quiet for a moment. "Does it?"

"What?"

"Get better in time?"

Buffy took a deep breath. "Yes and no. You learn to live with the pain and eventually, you can think of her without feeling like your insides were torn out. It's never easy, but it gets manageable."

"And until then?" said Lucas, sounding like the 12 year old boy he was.

"Until then," said Buffy slowly, "you focus on putting one foot in front of the other."

They sat in silence for a moment. "I'm sorry I took your wallet."

Buffy smiled. "Alright. Let's get you back to Anne's."

Lucas opened his mouth to reply, but no sound escaped his lips. Instead, his eyes went wide as he stared at something just past Buffy's shoulder. Buffy turned around just in time to catch a fist to the face. Unprepared for the blow, she fell to the ground.

Her attacker advanced at her, and realization dawned in her eyes as she stared at the demon. She quickly glanced at Lucas to find him still standing there, frozen.

"Lucas!" she hissed desperately to get his attention. His eyes snapped to hers. "Tell Anne," she told him. The boy nodded and ran off.

She turned to face her attacker, staring into the insolent face of Kennedy.


	10. Chapter 10

Everyone gathered in Angel's office, amidst piles of ancient texts and dictionaries.

"Okay," said Angel to Giles and Wesley. "Just walk us through what you have on this thing already and we'll take it from there."

"Shouldn't Buffy be here for this?" asked Fred.

"She will be. She's just seeing one of Annie's kids home. We'll catch her up when she gets in."

Giles cleared his throat. "It might be for the best that she's not here yet. You may have noticed she's not well known for her patience in situations like this."

Angel bit back a smile in response. "So, Wes, Giles, what do you have so far?"

"Not much," said Wes.

"Well let's start from the beginning," said Fred.

Wesley pulled a book forward. "Well this section right here," he said, pointing to the excerpt in question, "talks about the demon itself. Nothing particularly concerning. It does have what we would call 'super-strength,' but nothing that should be terribly insurmountable for a slayer."

"This passage is what we're most concerned about," said Giles, turning the book so the others could see it. "It says, if we're not mistaken, 'While the physical being attacks, you are beset by its demons-"

"Your," interrupted Andrew, offhandedly.

"What's that?" said Giles impatiently.

"Your demons."

Giles froze. Wesley gaped. They looked at each other wide-eyed. Catching their reaction, everyone else exchanged glances. Unconcerned and oblivious, Andrew looked at the two Watchers as if to say "continue."

Giles looked at Andrew. Then he looked at Wesley. Then he looked at the text. He looked back at Andrew. His mouth opened and closed a few times. "What?" he finally managed.

Andrew pointed to what looked like a few squiggles and two dots. "That's a personal possessive pronoun. It's in the second person. It's 'your demons,' not 'its demons,'" he said nonchalantly.

Gunn's eyebrows shot up as he watched Andrew speak. Wesley and Giles still looked thunderstruck. Getting a sinking feeling as he absorbed the words, Angel exchanged an uneasy glance with Spike. It was Fred who finally broke the silence.

"What exactly does it mean by 'your demons'?"

Wesley shook his head to clear it, snapping himself back to reality. "Well the next word indicates 'of the mind' or 'psyche.'"

"Personal demons. Issues." Angel kicked the desk in frustration, startling everyone in the room. "The things that can break you."

Wesley nodded slowly. "So it managed to kill the other slayers because they…"

"Lost their will to fight," Angel finished for him.

"But Buffy can't be broken, right? I mean, no one's ever succeeded before," said Fred.

"Everyone can be broken, Fred," said Angel with a haunted look in his eyes. "No one's managed it before, but if this thing has actual access to her mind…"

"Okay," said Gunn, "So we need to keep it from breaking the unbreakable Buffy. We just need to be prepared. So what are blondie's personal demons?"

All eyes turned to Giles. "Well I-I imagine… I-I mean her… um… her deaths had the most notable-"

"Oh come on, Rupert!" Spike exploded. "Death isn't her biggest demon."

'_Because he was there!'_ she had yelled.

Angel looked at Spike as if seeing him again for the first time.

"Oh," he whispered.

"What?" said Gunn.

Angel was still looking at Spike. "Abandonment."

Spike nodded. "Girl's got the worst abandonment issues I've ever seen."

"Oh god," said Angel.

"What is it?" asked Fred.

"That thing has way too much ammunition."

"Okay," said Gunn, trying to stay positive. "Okay, we can deal with this. Now that we know, we can work with Buffy, and-"

"Angel!" said Anne, bursting in, completely out of breath. "Goddamnit, answer your phone!"

Angel looked down at his cell phone, surprised to find it shut off. He looked back at Anne. "What is it? Where's-"

"It's Buffy."

Everyone in the room, even Andrew, sat up, alarmed. "Buffy?" Angel whispered.

"Something's got her. I think it's the demon you're after."

"Where?" said Angel, all business, grabbing the sword Gunn passed him.

"About six blocks from the shelter. I'll show you," she said, turning to go.

"No," said Angel tersely. "You go back to your shelter."

Anne spun around furiously. "I don't work for you, buddy, so you-"

"Annie, he's right," Gunn cut in. "You have to take care of those kids. Nothing can happen to you."

She glared at both Angel and Gunn, but nodded, resigned.

"Now, Anne," said Angel urgently. "Where is she?"

**

* * *

**

Buffy was holding her own. Barely. She desperately tried to tune out the figures appearing in and out of her periphery. She tried to focus on the fight, but it was getting more and more difficult. She executed a technically perfect combination of kicks and punches, but it was clear that she was losing her fire.

Hank Summers was standing about five feet away from the fighting pair as Angel and the gang arrived. "…I'm not really getting anything out of these weekends, so-"

A hard punch to the face sent her sprawling to the ground. The gang ran forward to help, but was soon knocked to the ground themselves as they all ran into invisible barriers. Angel shook his head, confused for a moment.

"The Westiff," said Giles.

"Aw, man, how did we forget that?" said Gunn.

Buffy was picking herself up as they spoke. "That never really happened," she said.

The Dankaar just smiled a feral, bone chilling smile.

"We were focused on other things," Angel said to Gunn. He pounded desperately on the barrier. "Buffy! Buffy, listen! We're here! We're with you!"

Catching on, Spike followed his lead as Hank appeared again. "Don't listen to the wanker, pet!"

"…my work schedule's getting pretty hectic. I don't know if I can make it to these weekend visits anymore."

Another punch to the gut sent her stumbling back a few feet, but this time she remained standing.

Giles appeared on the makeshift battlefield. "She alone will have the strength and skill… She will always be alone."

Gunn looked at Giles, who watched, openmouthed. "I-I never said that last part."

"It uses a combination of what she knows is true and what she fears is true," said Angel, all too familiar with the technique.

"It's using her psyche as its own personal playground," said Fred in sympathy. "It's not going to play fair."

"Oh god," said Angel, utter dread creeping into his face.

"You're saying that entirely too much today, man," said Gunn.

Buffy had taken a few more hits, but had regained the upper hand. Angel watched, transfixed. "If this thing is bringing out her personal demons," Angel began, unable to finish as Angelus appeared in front of the fighting pair.

"No. No! NO!" yelled Angel desperately, banging on the force-field. "Buffy! Don't listen! Damnit, why can't she hear? BUFFY!"

"Yeah, like I wanted to stick around after that," Angelus was saying. Buffy tried to get up, but was immediately beaten back down. "You've got a lot to learn about men, kiddo. But I guess you proved that last night."

"Buffy! It was… He just wanted to hurt you! Don't listen!"

Spike joined his cries as Buffy lay on the ground, rolling to avoid attacks. She flung herself to her feet just in time to get a hard kick to the ribs, but once again, she stayed up.

"That's right, slayer, don't listen to him!" Spike bellowed. "You're brilliant in the sack and I mean it!"

"Spike…" growled Angel through gritted teeth.

"I mean, that thing you do with your hips is inspired! And that thing with your mouth-"

"Spike!"

"You've got muscles in places-"

"Spike!" Angel bellowed as Gunn, despite the dire circumstances, doubled over laughing.

"I'm just trying to help," Spike said with a pout.

"Try something else," said Angel through gritted teeth.

As the parade of classmates Angelus had turned began, the Dankaar took the shape of Buffy herself.

Wesley looked at Giles with sympathy and a glimmer of understanding. "You wrote about this. Stripping her of those she cares about, starting with those on the fringes of her life."

Giles said nothing, bracing himself for the figure he knew was coming.

Buffy attacked her look-alike with a new ferocity. The gang silently watched the two Buffy's locked in battle. Finally, Spike spoke.

"Am I the only one who finds this disturbingly hot?"

Angel refused to answer on the grounds that he wasn't willing to admit it. Out loud, anyway. His slight smile disappeared, however, as Jenny appeared.

"Really, I'm kind of grateful I died when I did," she was saying. "It saved me the fate of having you as a step-slayer."

But Buffy kept her focus, ignoring the image of Jenny to continue her fight with the look-alike.

"That's my girl," whispered Angel, unable to look at Giles.

But just as he spoke, his own image appeared on the battlefield. His arm was outstretched, a sword through his stomach, as he was sucked into the swirling vortex behind him.

Against her will, Buffy looked at the confusion, hurt, and shock etched into his features. It was only a split second, but it was enough for the demon, now back in its original form, to gain the upper hand again.

"No, no, no!" shouted Angel.

"You did him a favor!" shouted Spike. "Think of all the great comebacks he has every time someone tells him to go to hell!"

"We have to do something!" said Fred, as images continued to play in front of Buffy and the demon.

"I'm open to ideas!" said Angel as he watched Buffy clearly now on the losing end of the fight. "Anything!"

Hank's voice could be heard over their conversation, spouting off excuses for why he couldn't make it to her birthday.

"Let's start with…" Angel trailed off as his image appeared again near Buffy and the Dankaar. This time, an 18 year old Buffy accompanied him. "Start with…" he tried to continue, but was unable to as he watched himself break Buffy's heart.

"…freak show," was all he caught, but the words felt like a physical blow.

"Start with what?" said Wesley.

But Angel could just stand and watch as a teary-eyed young Buffy laid her heart on the line.

"I want my life to be with you," she'd said.

"I don't," Angel heard himself say.

"Angel, man, snap out of it! It's making up things to hurt her again. She needs your help," said Gunn.

"No it's not," said Spike.

The others stared at Angel as the man in question stood frozen, unable to tear his gaze away. A few yards away, the real Buffy was in even worse shape. Unable to stand, she staggered around in an attempt to dodge the Dankaar's attacks. The demon now had one of her stakes. They all watched the demon, as if in slow motion, slip past Buffy's weakened guard to stab her through the abdomen.

"Oh god," said Fred.

Angel pounded his fists against the barrier as if he could break it through sheer force alone. Spike was doing much the same, only noisier.

"Come one, slayer, I've seen you fight through worse!" he was screaming.

"Angel, we have to think of something!" Fred yelled.

But his whole world had narrowed to the blond, who put her hand to her side, then examined the blood on it as she took it away. She glared at the now-smug demon. The pain helped her sharpen her focus and ignore the images flashing around her. Parker's rant went unnoticed as she glared furiously at the Dankaar.

Angel almost smiled. "Okay, we have some time, but not much."

Fred and Gunn looked at him strangely, then back to Buffy as she picked herself up.

"That's the third fucking time I've gotten stabbed in that spot!" she yelled.

They all watched as she threw herself at him angrily, regaining the upper hand again, stab wound be damned.

"Guys!" said Angel. "She's got her second wind, but who knows how long it'll last. We need to figure something out."

All eyes snapped back to him. "First priority is to find a way out of here. Failing that, we should figure out why she can't hear us."

"I don't think the Westiff's natural abilities include the ability to mute us, so it might be a spell," said Giles, keeping an eye on Buffy, who was still holding her own, her usual grace replaced by a savage desperation.

As Riley betrayed and left her in the background, she dropped her guard just long enough for her opponent to get a powerful punch in, but she didn't slow down.

"Okay, well any way to counter that spell quickly? Any way to get us out of here?" said Angel urgently. Buffy's mom appeared and Buffy's focus wavered again. "Very quickly? She's losing it."

"I-I'm trying! I don't…" Giles trailed off as he appeared again, telling Buffy he was leaving her to go back to England.

Angel clapped his hands to get his attention. "Giles! Think!"

"Y-yes. Yes. Okay."

"The only way the escape these fields is either for the Westiff to die, lose consciousness, get more than one mile away, or consciously release us," said Wesley.

"Okay, keep an eye out for the demon then. What about our sound buffer?"

"It could be part of the Dankaar's power. He distracts her from her surroundings, makes her see what he wants her to see, within reason," said Giles, "It's not entirely unlikely that he makes it difficult for her to hear us as well."

"So how do we make ourselves heard?" asked Fred.

"It's pure conjecture at this point, but most likely a tremendous force of will and focus by both parties."

"I'm more concerned with how do we get ourselves out of here," said Gunn.

"These force-fields – they only hold us, right? I mean the car could just go right through it," said Fred.

Wesley nodded in response.

"Well then, grab the biggest rock you can find nearby and hope it comes within firing range," said Angel.

"He must be nearby," said Giles. "The farther away he gets, the weaker the barrier…" he broke off, watching in horror as he looked at Buffy. The rest of the group whirled around to find her getting pummeled by the demon.

Looking for the cause, Angel saw a group of girls he didn't recognize, Faith, the Scoobies, Giles and Dawn all gathered looking solemn and accusing. He watched, openmouthed as, one by one, they all mutinied against the nearly broken slayer.

His eyes returned to Buffy, horrified to find that all of the fight had gone out of her. She lay on the ground, broken, bleeding and sobbing, only putting up a token resistance to her attacker.

He spun back around to look at Giles, who was unable to meet his gaze. "Tell me this is just some fear she cooked up in her mind. This didn't actually happen."

Spike laughed humorlessly. Giles's guilty silence was all the answer Angel needed. "This could actually break her."

"It nearly bloody did the first time 'round," said Spike.

Angel watched Buffy get tossed around like a rag doll for a moment. "No," he said resolutely, as Dawn finished kicking her out of her own home. "No. Focus, you said? Me, Spike and Giles will do everything we can to get through to her. Wes, Fred, Gunn, you guys keep an eye out for the Westiff. We need to get out of here; she's barely hanging on to consciousness."

Angel concentrated harder than he ever had in his life.

**On the battlefield…**

Everything hurt. She barely registered the continuous blows to her person as everything melded into an intense, blinding white haze of pain. She watched as Dawn finished kicking her out of her own house, unable to hold back the gut wrenching sobs this time. Andrew stepped up after the onslaught of betrayal.

"Thank god she's gone," he said to Dawn.

Something about that didn't make sense. Through the murky haze of pain, something about that wormed its way into her consciousness. Try as she might, she couldn't ignore it. That last part didn't ring true.

She used that thread of reality to pull herself out of the haze, if only a little. Andrew wasn't there. He didn't say that. _Glad I figured that one out,_ she thought to herself.

Andrew was with Spike. Spike, who believed in her. _How nice of him,_ she thought, ready to slip back into her daze. She felt less in her state of half-consciousness. It hurt less. But try as she might, she couldn't slip back into semi-consciousness. There was something tugging at her, and now that she was partially alert, she couldn't ignore it. It was like a little kid sitting behind you on a long, international flight, flicking the back of your head so you couldn't get any sleep.

She focused on it, trying to get it taken care of so she could get on with blissful numbness.

"Buffy! Buffy please, don't give up!" Angel's voice came across desperate, but muffled, like he was speaking from very far away and perhaps through a door. She turned her head and squinted, shocked to see Giles, Andrew and Angel's gang not too far away, pressed against invisible barriers.

Giles voice came across next, panicked, yet wonderfully British. "You must focus, Buffy!"

"Jesus, Buffy! This ponce killed your girls! Don't let him win!" said Spike, just as muffled as the others, but no less recognizable.

"Buffy, I love you!" she head Angel say.

The demon grabbed the knife it had taken from her boot. It leaned in to deliver the killing blow. She caught his arm midstroke. Bruised, battered, and bloody, she turned her face to his with a look in her eye that gave him a moment's pause.

**A few yards away…**

"It's working!" said an exuberant Angel hoarsely. "She's starting to fight back!"

Spike let out his own whoop of joy. "That's right, pet! You got this!"

A scuffle nearby made everyone whirl around and grab their makeshift weapons. They all tensed as they heard footsteps approaching, until Lorne walked into view. He grinned at everyone's surprise. "Angelcakes. Forget about me?"

"Wha… I… No… What…?"

Lorne chuckled. "Annie told me what was going on. I may not be great in a fight, but I can throw a rock or two if necessary. It's knocked out."

When they all stayed still, gaping at him, Lorne made a shooing motion. "You should be able to move now."

They all took a cautious step forward. Spike and Angel looked at each other before sprinting over to where Buffy was…

Kicking the Dankaar's ass.

They reached Buffy just as she beheaded the demon. Dropping her weapon, with satisfaction, she turned to see everyone else, swaying slightly on her feet at the motion.

"What're… what…?"

"We, uh, came to save you," Angel said lamely.

"Thanks," she said, looking around. "That's… that…" She shook her head, which hurt, so she stopped. "I'm… I'm gonna… pass out, and then…"

She crumpled mid-sentence, and Angel rushed forward to catch her. He lifted her precious weight in his arms and looked around at his companions.

"Let's go home."


	11. Chapter 11

**Here we are. The final chapter. I just want to thank everyone who reads, and particularly those who review, for their support. Of course, I want to thank Love-el-ly Joy for getting me through this story. You guys all rock. I hemmed and hawed about how to end this between our favorite couple, so I hope you guys like the ending. It was the only thing I could really see happening. **

**Another note: The Evil Dead is a real movie. That actually happens. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this and thanks again, everyone!  
**

Buffy awoke in a hospital bed. Again. Groaning and rolling her eyes, she eyed Fred, who was fluttering around the machines. She held up her hand as Fred opened her mouth to speak.

"Let's see, severe blood loss, big stab wound in the abdomen, mild concussion, a few broken ribs, maybe one or two cracked ones, sprained ankle, broken wrist, dislocated shoulder, a…" she frowned as she wiggled her toes, "broken toe? – and various cuts and scrapes… sorry, 'contusions' and 'lacerations.'"

Fred's eyes widened. "Is that part of your slayer power? You can catalogue every injury-"

Buffy snorted. "If by 'slayer power,' you mean 'I've been injured so many times I know injuries well enough to diagnose myself,' then yeah. The point is, give me some blood, bandage up the stab wound, and maybe set the wrist and I can hobble myself outta here. I'll be good as new in a day, maybe two."

Fred raised her eyebrows. "And the shoulder?" She wrinkled her nose, regretting the question as Buffy popped it back into place. `

"Fred, I like you, I really do, but I will get my slayer on if you try to keep me here again."

Lips twitching in amusement, Fred raised her hands in surrender.

"Will you stop threatening my staff?" said a voice from the doorway.

"Angel."

"Buffy," he returned, stepping into the room. "Nice to see you're back to normal."

Fred set up the blood transfusion as they spoke.

"Pffft," said Buffy dismissively. "Fred can take it; she's tough." She winked at the girl in question, who smiled back.

"You'll see just how tough I am if you don't stop moving your hand around. Hold still; I need to set it."

"What'd I tell ya?"

Angel's lips quirked. "You'll notice I didn't disagree."

"Smart man. It's always the quiet ones. Just look at Willow and her resolve face." Her smile dimmed a bit. "I should call Willow."

Finished with her work, Fred passed Buffy her cell phone. "While you do that, Angel, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Angel looked at Buffy, who waved to him. "Go ahead, I'm just going to call Will."

"You sure?"

Buffy rolled her eyes, but couldn't contain the smile playing around her lips. "It's not exactly strenuous. I think I can handle it."

Angel gave her hand (the uninjured one, that is) a light squeeze before walking out with Fred.

**

* * *

**

"So that's it then?" Fred asked, whirling on him as soon as the door closed behind them. "You're just going to pretend we didn't see what we saw?"

"What?" asked Angel in utter bewilderment.

"What just happened out there!"

"You mean tonight? The fight with the Dankaar?"

"Yes!" cried Fred in exasperation. "God, do you always do this?"

"Do what?"

"Pretend like nothing happened when something obviously did!"

He shrugged. "Not always. It's probably about 50/50."

"Don't you think you should _not_ ignore this one?" she said, frustrated. "My god, Angel, you need to talk to her about these things."

Some of the emotion he had been keeping a careful lid on began to seep out. "And what about tonight do you want me to talk to her about? How horrifying it was to see her in danger like that? So close to death? Do you think I should tell her to give up her calling to stay safe? How well is that going to go over when I'm doing the exact same thing?"

"That's not what I'm talking about!" said Fred.

"Ah," he said bitterly. "Maybe you want me to go in there and say 'Don't listen to him, Buffy, he was lying.'"

Fred just glared at him.

"Except he wasn't," Angel continued. "All those things – they really happened. No one knows that better than Buffy; she lived through it all!" He stepped forward. "Or maybe you think I should go in there and hold her hand and promise that I will never leave her again, just to make it that much worse when we say goodbye again in a few days."

Fred blinked. "You're planning on leaving her again?"

Angel ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "No. Yes. I don't know! Do I really have a choice? She'll be going back to Europe, which… she has important work to do there. I have to figure out what to do with this place."

Fred had no idea what to say.

"If we were both still in Sunnydale… but the playing field has gotten a lot bigger." He ran another frustrated hand through his hair. "If I could, I…" He broke off, sighing in frustration. Without another word, he walked back into Buffy's room, leaving Fred blinking at the empty room.

Angel took a calming breath as he closed the door behind him.

"Angel?" said Buffy, as she disconnected her call.

"Buffy."

Buffy smiled in amusement. "I think we already did this part a few minutes ago. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said. "You didn't have to hang up."

She looked down at the phone. "No, I was hanging up anyway. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said, stepping closer to her.

She shot him a look that clearly called bullshit. Finally, she took his hand. "Hey, we all have our demons."

He nodded. "I know, and I… I think I get why Spike is so…" he almost choked on the words, "important to you."

Unexpectedly, she grinned. "You look like you just swallowed bad milk."

He grumbled something unintelligible.

"You know why Spike's so amazing?" she asked.

Oh god, did he ever _not_ want to know. "Why?" he asked, masochist that he was.

"Because he's still there for me, even though he knows he'll never mean to me what you mean to me."

A slow smile spread across his face. Eventually, he cleared his throat.

"Alright, let's get you out of here before Fred gets back."

Buffy threw off the covers and leaned on Angel as he helped her hobble out of the room.

**

* * *

**

Giles was walking back into the building with a shopping bag when he quite literally ran into Gunn.

"Ooof," Gunn grunted, more from being hit with the freezing cold bag than anything else. "Hey, man, what the hell do you have in there?"

"Gunn," said Giles. "I have a bit of a favor to ask of you."

"A favor?" asked Gunn suspiciously, making Giles laugh.

"Nothing too strenuous, I assure you. You and Buffy seem to get along very well."

"Well, sure. I mean, you gotta respect a girl who can kick both Spike and Angel's asses and still have a sense of humor. Why?"

Giles sighed. "Back in Sunnydale, after going through a particularly rough battle, she would gather with her friends to watch movies and eat ice cream. Obviously, Willow and Xander are not around at the moment, but I can't help but feeling as if she needs that right now."

Gunn blinked for a moment, then laughed. "You call ice cream and movies a favor? Usually I'm asked to help someone move or something. What's the movie?"

Giles reached into the bag and pulled out a DVD.

"_The Evil Dead?_" Gunn laughed. "You brought her a zombie movie?"

"She likes them!" Giles said defensively. "She says they're funnier than any comedy she's ever seen."

Gunn just laughed as they made their way to Angel's apartments. "She is not most girls."

Giles smiled faintly.

They pushed open the door to find Angel settling Buffy in his bed, pulling an arm chair up next to it for himself. They both looked up as Giles and Gunn walked in.

"Giles! Hey, what's up?"

"I come bearing gifts."

Buffy's eyes lit up in a kind of girlish glee Giles hadn't seen in years. "Oooh presents! Lemme see," she said as he handing over his bag.

Her eyes almost teared up when she looked in.

"What is it?" asked Angel, concerned.

Buffy just looked at Giles, blinking furiously. "Cookie dough fudge mint chip?"

Giles just smiled at her as Angel reached into the bag to pull out the movie.

"You still like zombie movies?" he asked.

"If you'd just give them a chance, you'd like them too!" she replied hotly.

"Buffy, they're ridiculous."

"I know! And that's the whole point!" She turned to Gunn. "Tell me you're sticking around for the show."

Gun grinned. "Wouldn't miss it."

"Good, you can help me make Mr. 'I'm-too-old-to-have-a-sense-of-humor' stay and watch. Giles, you in?"

"Erm, I'm afraid not. I have some… um… important Watcher stuff to discuss with Wesley."

"Hmph," Buffy said, making a big show of huffing, but unable to stop the smile that crept over her face.

**Five minutes later…**

Spike poked his head into Angel's apartment, finding Buffy, Angel and Gunn settled in around the room, watching the movie.

"So this is where the party is. I've been wondering," he said, walking further into the room. "Good to see you doing alright, pet."

"Spike!" she said, smiling at him. "Hey, we were just starting a zombie movie.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," said Gunn, joining in. "So far we have five college students on their way to an old, abandoned cabin in the woods."

"Oooh! Sounds like a good one."

"Pull up a chair," said Angel, unexpectedly.

Spike looked at him in surprise. Buffy was ready to start tearing up again. "Stupid hormones," she muttered, trying to discreetly wipe at her eyes. "Must be getting menstrual."

"You are," said both Angel and Spike in unison.

She shot them both "that-is-completely-gross" looks before demanding the ice cream from Gunn.

Spike cleared his throat. "Um, where can I find a chair?"

Angel looked around the room. "Um, here, you can have mine," he said, settling himself in the bed, next to Buffy. "What?" he asked innocently, when she shot him another look, its effect somewhat dampened by the smile playing around her lips.

**20 minutes later…**

"She's gonna get it," said Gunn.

"Why, just because she's a fraidy-cat who heard a strange, ghostly chant coming from the dark woods and decided to go out alone to investigate?" Spike said.

"Why is there so much fog out there? The only time I've seen so much smoke was when we blew up your school. Seems like they should be more concerned about forest fires than any zombies that might attack," said Angel.

"The guy with the unibrow is going to be the hero. I can't believe the hero is going to have a unibrow," said Buffy.

"I can't believe the trees are going to be evil," said Gunn. "Mark my words."

Spike shrugged. "Makes sense to me. Never liked trees. Entirely too… made out of wood for my taste."

"A flowy white robe!" said Buffy. "Could you get less imaginative?"

"Buffy, with lines like 'Hello?' and 'I know someone's out there,' I don't think…"

He trailed off, staring at the screen as his jaw dropped.

Everyone else in the room had the same reaction.

"Oh… my…god," was all Buffy could say. She picked up the remote and paused the movie. For a few minutes, they all stared blankly at the paused screen. Finally, Buffy spoke again.

"Did that just happen?"

"I…" said Angel.

"Man, that is messed up," said Gunn.

"Did the girl really just get…?" Buffy couldn't finish the sentence.

"Raped by a tree," Angel finished for her.

"I told you trees were evil," said Spike.

**

* * *

**

Hours later, after they'd finished the movie, sides aching with laughter, and after Buffy had taken a long nap in Angel's bed, surrounded by his comforting scent, Buffy found herself back at the shelter, packing up her things.

"When do you leave?" asked Anne.

"A few hours."

Anne nodded. "When are you going to say goodbye to Angel?"

Buffy sighed. "Right after I finish packing." She gave a short, bitter laugh. "It'll only take a few minutes. We've shortened the goodbye script over time. You'd be amazed how many ways you can say goodbye without saying the actual words."

"Maybe you can make it work this time."

Buffy looked at her incredulously. "You say that just before I'm going to leave for another continent!"

A knock sounded from the doorway. They both looked up to find Angel standing on the threshold of the room, knuckles still on the open door. "Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," returned Buffy, just as quietly.

He stepped further into the room. "Can I help?"

Anne looked between the two of them. "I need to go check on a few things," she said before making herself scarce.

"I…" Buffy began, looking up at him. "Umm… thank you. For all your help, I mean."

He stepped closer. "Of course."

"It…" she took a deep breath. "It really meant a lot"

He took another step closer. "Buffy, you don't have to thank me. You can always come to me."

She gave a short, sarcastic laugh. "Right." She looked up at him, their faces mere inches away from each other. "Can we not do this?" she breathed.

"I don't want to say goodbye."

"We never do anyway," she said, backing up.

"You know what I mean."

"Angel," she said, blinking away tears, "I have to go back. I _want_ to go back. I love you, but I love the work I'm doing over there."

"I know," he said. "I know. I'm not asking you to give it up. I never would. I'm just…" he paced. "People make long distance relationships work all the time! Normal people!"

Buffy laughed in disbelief. "Angel, our lives are complicated enough without trying to throw a long distance relationship in the mix!"

"Why not?" he exclaimed. "The world has changed. We have cell phones, internet… Buffy, I have a private jet, for god's sake!"

"Are you hearing yourself? Do you know how rare it is for long distance to work?"

Angel almost laughed. "Buffy, do you know how rare it is for a vampire with a soul and a vampire slayer to be in love? Do you know how rare and… bizarre just about everything in our lives are?"

He took her hand, pulling her towards him. "My life is better with you in it. Just hearing your voice brightens my day. I want to hear it regularly. I want to call you when I'm thinking about you; I want to talk things over with you when I'm confused, and I want to be the one you call at the end of a long day. I want to see you, or at least hear from you, more than once a year when disaster strikes. And I know that one day we'll find ourselves in the same city. I can feel it. But I don't want to wait until that day."

"For such a laconic guy, you sure talk a lot," said Buffy.

He waited her out.

"How do I know that one day you won't just get scared or impatient or decide for me that I need more than long distance or…" She broke off as he wrapped his arms around her. She didn't resist, but neither did she relax into his embrace. "I can't take that again, Angel."

He shushed her. "I won't."

"Promise me," she said, pulling away and looking him straight in the eye. "I need you to promise me that even if you get scared or it gets hard, you'll work through it with me. You won't give up on me again."

"I promise."

She looked at him for a moment, then laughed. "I can't believe I'm doing this again."

He brightened. "But you are?" he asked cautiously.

She sighed. "My life is better with you in to, too," she said, reaching up to cup his face. "Besides," she added, "it would be such a waste if you never used that private jet."

**

* * *

**

Gunn was using his manly strength to help Buffy with her bags. Buffy was giving Spike a big hug goodbye. Fred was on the phone with Willow, discussing the details of Angel's curse, and Wesley was hovering near Fred.

Giles leaned over to Angel, speaking in a low, controlled voice filled with deadly steel. "If you ever hurt Buffy again, I will hunt you down and show you exactly why they used to call me Ripper."

Angel looked at the Watcher for a moment, then back at Buffy. He smiled. "Understood."


End file.
